A Shinigami's Journey
by Unknown entity328
Summary: A boy mysteriously fell from the sky with an unknown mark on his foot. What could this mean for the Soul Society? Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, Tite Kubo does
1. Chapter 1

**Hello my beloved readers, it's Unknown entity328 with a brand new fanfic XD! This fanfic was requested by my younger sister and I already had a plot swimming around in my head for this just waiting to be used so I thought what the heck? It took a while to get the details right, but I'm happy with the results and I hope you'll support this fanfic like my other fanfics. Now on with the chapter!**

* * *

Chapter One: The Story Begins

Rukia and Renji were walking along the empty streets of the Hanging Dog district on their way back to their hideout after another successful raid when Renji thought about what Rukia said at their friends graves.

"Rukia." Renji said getting Rukia to turn her head to face him giving him a questioning look. "Do you think we have what it takes to enter the academy?"

"Oh come on Renji, don't tell me you're backing out." Rukia said giving Renji an exasperated look before a sly smirk made its way across her face. "Or is it you're scared?"

"I am not scared shorty!" Renji shouted with a fist in her face and a tic mark on his forehead.

"Who are you calling shorty tomato head?!" Rukia yelled getting in Renji's face angry at the shorty comment.

Before their argument could progress, something fell on top of Renji causing him to fall flat on his face and spill everything that was in the jar he was holding. Renji groaned while Rukia just stood over him with a surprised look on her face. On top of Renji was an unconscious boy looking about fifteen years in age with short spiky white hair wearing a light blue kimono. Rukia looked up to see where the boy could have fallen from only to see nothing but the clear blue sky.

"That's weird." Rukia mumbled to herself crossing her arms in thought. "There's nothing to fall off from, so how did he fall on top of Renji?"

"In case you forgot Rukia." Renji managed to get out reminding the raven haired girl that he was still flat on the ground face first. "Can you get this guy off me?"

"Oh, sorry." Rukia said sheepishly before she put down the jar she was holding and started to pull the unconscious boy by his arms off the red head. Renji got up rubbing his now aching back and looked down to the unconscious boy that fell on top of him.

"Any idea who this is?" Renji asked not recalling ever seeing the boy in the Hanging Dog district before.

"No." Rukia shook her head. "I've never seen him before. Do you think he's a new arrival?"

"Doubt it, new arrivals don't usually fall from the sky." Renji looked at the unconscious boy with suspicion in his eyes. "Maybe he's a ryoka?"

"If he was a ryoka we would be seeing soul reapers running around here looking for him." Rukia deadpanned looking around the district. "Do you see any soul reapers running around yelling 'Find the ryoka' anywhere?"

"I guess you have a point there." Renji admitted scratching the back of his head in thought. "What do you think we should do with him?"

"Let's take him back with us." Rukia suggested as she took one of the unconscious boy's arms and slung it over her shoulder and Renji just looked at her like she was crazy. "We can't just leave him here."

Renji just stood there before sighing and scratched the back of his head again. "Alright fine, I'll carry him and you carry what's left of what we got." Rukia nodded as she moved the boy to Renji's back and she picked up the jar she was holding while Renji looped his arms under the white haired teens legs and stood up. After Renji was sure he had a good grip so the boy wouldn't fall, the two continued their way to the shack where they live. Renji noticed something and looked down to see that the teen on his back had a black tattoo on his right foot in the shape of the number twenty. He raised an eyebrow and looked to Rukia. "Hey Rukia." The petite black haired girl gave the red head an inquisitive look and he nodded his head down. "Any idea what this could mean?"

Raising an eyebrow Rukia looked to the white haired teen's right foot to see the black number twenty tattoo. She looked back to Renji and shook her head. "No clue, maybe he can answer that for us when he wakes up." Renji nodded in agreement and they continued on in silence.

* * *

The teen groaned as he slowly opened his golden eyes to see the ceiling of a rundown building. He got up to a sitting position causing the blanket and wet cloth on his forehead to fall and looked around with curious eyes.

"Where am I?" The boy asked himself as he looked around.

"Oh good, you're awake." A feminine voice said causing the boy to turn to the entrance of the building to see a girl with raven black hair with a strand between her eyes and a boy with red hair tied in a messy ponytail. "How are you feeling?"

"I think I'm alright." The boy said unsurely placing a hand on his forehead before lowering it and looked around the shack again. "Where am I?"

"You're in the south 78th district of the soul society." The red haired teen said before pointing to himself. "The names Renji Abarai by the way."

"And I'm Rukia." The raven haired girl said sitting next to the blond boy who was still sitting in a makeshift bed. "What's your name?"

The teen opened his mouth to respond but closed it and looked down to his hands folded on his lap with a frown on his face as he got lost in his thoughts. He sighed and shook his head. "I don't have a name."

"What do you mean you don't have a name?" Renji asked raising an eyebrow. "You've got to have one."

"Maybe amnesia?" Rukia guessed resting her chin between her thumb and index finger humming in thought before looking to the white haired boy. "What's the last thing you remember?"

"Um..." The teen closed his eyes placing a hand on the side of his head as blurry images played inside his head. He was in a cold, dark place with no light to be seen hearing nothing but anguished screams. "I remember being somewhere really dark hearing screams of anguish, that's all I can remember."

Rukia and Renji shared a look before Rukia addressed their guest. "Maybe you should get some rest while we get dinner ready, if you have high spirit energy like us then you must be hungry." As if to answer for him, the boy's stomach started to growl demanding food causing him to blush in embarrassment while Rukia and Renji just chuckled. "I'll take that as a yes."

"Sorry for the trouble." The boy said trying to will away his blush as he laid down.

"Don't worry about it." Renji said waving a dismissive hand. "Rukia would have had my head if we left you to die." This earned him an elbow to the ribs from the petite girl that had a tick mark on her forehead while their bedridden guest just sweat dropped as Renji fell to his knees with his arms wrapped around his ribs.

"Pay him no mind." Rukia said before grabbing Renji by the back of his clothes and started to drag him out of the room. She stopped at the entrance to look back to the white haired boy. "By the way, do you want us to think of a name for you since you can't remember your old one?"

The boy blinked in surprise. "Give me a name?"

"Of course." Rukia nodded looking down to Renji then back. "We can't just keep referring to you as 'hey' or 'you' all the time, you need a proper name."

"Rukia's right." Renji piped in pulling the back of his clothes out of Rukia's grip and got to his feet dusting himself off. "Some people in the rukon district can't remember their names and so they give themselves new ones, so why not you?" He reached into the fold of his clothes and tossed a small bag tied closed with a piece of string to the white haired boy who caught it. "It'll be a little while before the food's ready, so eat that for now."

The white haired boy looked at the bag curiously before undoing the string and looked inside to see it was filled with different colored rock candy. He picked on up to examine it for a moment and tossed it in his mouth before his eyes widened in surprise when it touched his tongue. "It's sweet."

Renji laughed at the white head's reaction. "Of course it's sweet, it's rock candy."

"Rock candy?" The white haired teen repeated tilting his head to the side as he took out another to roll it between his thumb and index finger before putting it in his mouth enjoying it's sweet taste.

"Glad to see you like it." Rukia chuckled seeing the look of pure bliss on their guest's face. "Anyway, get some rest when you finish that." She then grabbed Renji's arm and dragged him out of the room leaving the white haired teen by himself to get lost in his thoughts.

' _They seem nice._ ' He thought as he retied the string to close the bag and placed it on his lap. He look out the only window in the room bringing a hand over his eyes when the setting sun blinded him a little. ' _Who am I? where did I come from? I can't remember anything other than hearing anguished screams._ ' He hissed when he felt a slight sting on his right foot and tossed the blanket off him to see what made the stinging sensation and what he saw was the number twenty tattoo on his foot. His eyes widened at what he was seeing and lightly touched the tattoo. ' _W-what is this? W-why is it on my foot?_ ' The stinging sensation faded and the teen continued to stare at the tattoo as he tried to remember where it came from.

He sighed and laid down to stare at the ceiling. "Why do I have this tattoo? Did I get it before I lost my memories?" He placed the back of his left hand on his forehead as he thought over what Rukia offered him. "A name, huh? What should my name be?" He shook his head and closed his eyes falling into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

Meanwhile, Renji and Rukia were in the room adjacent to the room their guest was resting in standing in front of a fire carefully watching the metal bowl suspended over the flame as the stew in it boiled.

"We forgot to ask him about that tattoo." Renji commented tossing a piece of wood in the fire to keep it burning.

"He probably wouldn't know anything as to why he has it even if we did ask him Renji." Rukia replied chopping some vegetables and tossing them into the stew. "He has amnesia, so we should wait until his memories come back."

"Then what should we do until then?" Renji asked scratching the back of his head. "This place is crowded enough with just the two of us, and there's the fact that we're going to apply for the academy soon."

"That's a good point." Rukia muttered in agreement resting her chin between her thumb and index finger. "It's also a problem that he has no memories prior to being in a dark place hearing anguished screams." She ran her fingers through her hair as she contemplated what to do about their white haired guest before looking to Renji. "Do you think we should suggest him applying to the academy with us?"

"There's no way they'll accept him Rukia." Renji said waving a dismissive hand. "He can't even remember his own name let alone pass the entrance exam." He put out the fire and stood straight up. "Not to mention we don't even know if he has enough spirit energy to even get passed the guardian of the gate to take the entrance exam."

"He must have even a little if he's hungry." Rukia pointed out leaving the room coming back a minute later with three wooden bowls. "Don't forget that residents of the rukon district don't get hungry unless they have a certain amount of spirit energy."

"Oh, right." Renji looked away from Rukia using a finger to scratch his slightly red cheek. "I knew that."

"Of course you did." Rukia said sarcastically rolling her eyes as she carefully scooped some of the stew in the bowls and handed one to Renji. "Why don't you go see if our guest is awake and give him this?"

"Fine." Renji sighed taking the bowl and walked to the room where the white haired teen was sleeping. "I might as well ask him a few questions to see what else he remembers." He entered the room to see that the white haired teen was slowly opening his eyes and sitting up using the back of his hand to rub the sleep out of them. "Perfect timing, food's just finished cooking." He approached the white haired teen and held out the bowl. "Here, it's hot so be careful."

"Thank you." The teen said gratefully taking the bowl blowing on it a few times before bringing it to his lips and took a sip. He continued to drink the stew until it was empty before handing it to Renji. "Thank you, that was good."

"Don't mention it." Renji nodded taking the bowl. "Did you remember anything?"

The white haired teen shook his head. "Nothing, I can't remember anything other than what I told you two earlier."

"That so?" Renji raised an eyebrow looking to the white haired teen's foot. "I take it you don't know why you have that tattoo either, huh?" Again the teen shook his head looking over to the number twenty tattoo with a frown. Renji sighed resting a hand on his hip as he looked at the teen. "Anyway, about your name." The white haired teen looked to Renji giving his full attention. "I thought about it and it's probably not that good." He looked away from the white haired teen rubbing the back of his neck. "What do you think of Toya as your name?"

"Toya?" The teen asked tilting his head to the side.

"Yeah." Renji nodded putting the bowl by the teen and taking the other boy's hand having the palm facing up as he traced a finger along it. "You spell it like this, 冬靖." He looked up to the teen who was still looking at his hand. "What do you think?"

"Toya." He muttered as he copied the writing Renji showed him with his own finger. He looked up to Renji giving a small shy smile and nodded. "I like it."

"Toya it is then." Renji grinned picking up the bowl and walked towards the door stopping to look back at the now named Toya. "I'll go let Rukia know you have a name now, you rest some more Toya." Then he left the room and Toya laid down to stare at the ceiling.

"I have a name now." Toya whispered to himself bringing his hand up over his head and began tracing the characters for his new name. "Toya, I really like my new name." He had a thoughtful look on his face as he brought his hands down to rest by his sides as he continued to look up at the ceiling. "Should I think of a surname to go with my new name? Probably."

* * *

Three weeks has passed since Rukia and Renji encountered Toya and let him stay with them as he recovered and try to remember his past. On the second week, Toya made a full recovery and now wanders around the many districts in hopes of finding anything that would help him remember who he was or people who recognized him. He searched seven of the eighty districts in south rukon with nothing familiar and no one he asked knew him or of the tattoo on his foot.

"I'm back." Toya called out as he walked into the rundown shack to see that no one was home. "Did they go out again?" He went into his room that Rukia and Renji gave him and saw a note on his bed and picked it up to read what it said. "Toya, we'll be back before sunset." He looked out the window to see that the blue sky was slowly turning orange. "They must be on their way back now." He looked back to the note when the tattoo on his foot caught his attention and he frowned at the number. "What does this number mean? I searched seven districts and there's no lead to who I am."

"We're back." Toya heard Renji call out and turned to his door to see Renji and Rukia walk in. "Hey Toya, how'd the search go."

"Same as always Renji." Toya replied giving a smile. Over the past three weeks, after getting to know Rukia and Renji, Toya became more friendly and expressed more emotion than he did when they first met. Although he also developed a stubborn streak once he's made up his mind. "No one knew who I was or about my tattoo in district 71."

"At least that's another district off your list." Renji joked giving the white haired teen a grin. "At the rate your going, you'll find out who you are in no time."

"I appreciate the words of confidence Renji." Toya said letting out a sigh. "But I know that there are 320 districts in the rukon district and I only searched through seven of that 320." He clenched a fist holding it up. "I'm not giving up yet, I'll remember who I am even if I have to break into the Seireitei to do it."

"About that." Rukia said joining the conversation. "You may not need to break in to get in the Seireitei."

"What do you mean Rukia?" Toya asked in confusion.

"I talked to Renji about it a while ago." Rukia said giving Renji a side glance and from the look of realization on his face, he knew what she was talking about before she looked to Toya. "Maybe you should apply for the soul reaper academy with us Toya."

"Me?" Toya's eyes widened in surprise. "Become a soul reaper?"

Rukia nodded as she explained. "If you become a soul reaper, you can get in the Seireitei without getting in trouble and you can search through the districts faster." She pulled out a piece of paper that showed a map of the districts of south rukon. "Soul reapers use a technique called Flash Step to go from one place to another at really high speeds." She folded the paper and handed it to Toya. "If you can use this technique, you can cover all of south rukon in a few days."

"Rukia's right." Renji said in realization grinning to Toya. "You can even access their archives to see if there's a clue to that tattoo on your foot Toya."

Toya looked down to said tattoo and had a contemplative look on his face as he pondered what he should do. The mark seems to mock him every time he looks at it, like it was telling him that he'll never remember his past and that no one would care if he did. He remembered everything that Rukia and Renji told him about soul reapers and considered the pros and cons of becoming one very carefully. On the one hand, he can find out who he was faster. But on the other hand, he could end up dead long before he learns anything as a hollow's dinner.

"I'll have to think about it." Toya finally said walking past Rukia and Renji and out of the rundown building they call home. He looked back to the duo who followed him out the door and gave a small smile. "I'm going for a walk, I'll be back." He walked down the dirt path of the 78th district not paying attention to the passing people as he got lost in his thoughts letting his feet decide on the destination. Eventually, Toya left district 78 and entered district 77 continuing on his walk until he stopped at the top of a hill in front of a large apple tree before climbing it to sit on the highest branch and stared off into the distance.

"South rukon is so big, to think there are 240 more in other directions." Toya sighed reaching for the closest apple and plucked it off the branch and wiped it on his clothes before taking a bite. "How long would it take me to search all of the districts? Probably decades if not centuries." He took another bite of the apple as he watched the people walked about without a care in the world. "A soul reaper, huh? Should I enter the academy?" He tossed his finished apple and held out his right hand with the palm facing up and concentrated his eyes on it. A minute later, a glowing white orb the size of a basket ball was floating over his hand and Toya stared at it before willing it away letting his arm fall to the side to watch the setting sun. "I should head back."

The sound of howling caught Toya's attention and turned his head to look behind him where the sound came from and his eyes widened when he saw a giant creature that had green skin with black markings on it's arms and chest, a hole in the middle of it's chest, the top half of it's body being humanoid while the bottom half was a snake tail, and a white mask that looked like a snake head with red markings around the eye holes that had yellow glowing eyes slithering up the hill.

' _A hollow?_ ' Toya thought as his body quivered in fear when the creature noticed him and let out another howl before picking speed towards him. Toya flinched at the monster's speed and jumped off the tree branch landing on hit feet stumbling forward a little before running down the hill as fast as he could with the hollow not far behind. ' _What's a hollow doing here?!_ ' Toya made a sharp left turn entering a forest guiding the hollow away from the district. ' _I got to get it away from the other souls in the district_ _!_ ' He tripped on an exposed tree root and fell face first into the dirt before quickly getting up and running again not daring to look back in fear to see how close the hollow is. ' _There's no way I'm dying in a place like this!_ '

The hollow halted it's pursuit of Toya and it's head looked to it's left before letting out a howling and slithered in that direction. Toya stopped running to look back wondering why the hollow stopped chasing him when a scream was heard and his eyes widened in realization before running after the hollow brushing aside low tree branches until he was in a clearing with the hollow towering over a crying little girl. Toya made a mad dash when the hollow opened it's mouth and lunged towards the girl. Toya jumped forward wrapping his arms protectively around the girl as he rolled along the ground barely missing the hollow's jaw. After skidding to a stop, Toya looked down to the girl who was still crying.

"Are you alright?" The girl nodded burying her face into his chest as he sat up and looked over to the hollow to see it was having difficulty getting it's head out of the ground. Toya quickly let go of the girl placing his hands on her shoulders looking her in the eyes. "You need to run, I'll keep that thing busy for you." The girl shook her head rapidly and Toya moved his hands under her arms, picked her up, and tossed her to the edge of the clearing picking up a broken tree branch and getting to his feet. He looked back to see the girl was still there. "Run! Do you want to die?!" The girl flinched before turning and ran into the forest never looking back. When the girl was out of sight Toya looked back to the hollow gripping the branch with both hand as it finally pulled it's head out of the ground. Toya's entire body shook when the hollow slithered towards him howling but he stood his ground tightening his grip on the tree branch.

Toya let out a yell as he charged at the hollow bringing the branch up to strike only for the hollow to swat him away with it's tail sending him crashing his back into a tree and coughing up blood before falling to the ground. Toya used his left arm to push himself up and quickly got to his feet before charging at the hollow only to be swatted away again with a tail to the chest and skidding across the ground on his back. Toya started to have trouble breathing and knew right away that a rib must have broke puncturing a lung. Fighting the pain he got to his feet again to see the hollow lunge for him with it's mouth open and he closed his eyes waiting for the inevitable pain of being eaten. Toya slowly opened his eyes when he realized he was still alive and looked up to see a man with spiky raven black hair wearing a black shihakusho holding a sword that pierced through the hollows mask before it dissolved.

"Barely made it." The man muttered to himself swiping his sword to the side to get the excess blood off the blade before sheathing it and turning to Toya for him to see that his savior was very youthful in appearance and very tall. He had aqua green eyes and had a spiral tattoo in his left arm. "Hey, you alright kid?"

"I-I think so." Toya replied only to wince in pain wrapping an arm around where his rib was broken falling to his knees.

"Obviously you're not alright." The man stated with his arms on his hips looking behind him. "Hey! We got an injured soul here!"

"Coming!" Out of the trees came a woman with long brown hair wearing the same Shihakusho as Toya's savior only she carried a bag on her back. She stopped and knelt down to Toya carefully laying him down and gently move his arm away from his ribs. She took off her bag and opened the zipper to pull out a pair of pink gloves and pulled them on before looking down to Toya. "I need you to stay very still okay?" Toya nodded and the woman placed her hands over him and they started to glow green.

"Tell us kid." Toya looked to his savior who had his arms crossed. "Why did you fight that hollow instead of run?"

"I don't know." Toya replied trying to stay still like the woman asked. "I was just minding my own business when it showed up." He felt his rib slowly mending itself and his breathing was evening out. "I was scared so I ran and it chased after me. I thought if I could get it in the forest I could lose it and get it away from the district at the same time." He sighed turning his head to look up at the sky to see it was night now and the stars were making themselves known. "But that shot to hell when it went to this clearing trying to eat a little girl. I don't know what came over me, but when the hollow was about to eat I her I just jumped in to save her and told her to run while I kept it busy."

"And that was where we came in when it was about to do to you what it planned with the girl." The man concluded and Toya nodded. The man crouched looking down to Toya and reached down to ruffle his hair. Toya looked to the man in surprise to see he was grinning. "That was brave of you, risking your life to save another."

"I'm done." The woman said as the green glow faded and she lowered her arms and Toya sat up patting his chest a little. "Do you still feel pain anywhere?"

Toya shook his head and looked up to the two as they stood up. "Are you two soul reapers?"

"That's right." The man nodded giving a two fingered salute. "Name's Kaien Shiba, and the person next to me is Mayumi Sato." Mayumi smiled and gave a small wave. "Well, now that the hollow's dealt with, it's time we returned to the seireitei." Kaien looked down to Toya and ruffled his hair again. "Maybe we'll meet again, you should apply for the academy. With your spirit energy you'll get in no problem." He then turned and walked away with Mayumi following him.

Toya watched them leave until he could no longer seem them before getting to his feet and turned to leave in the opposite direction. "So those were soul reapers, huh?" He looked up too see the stars through the gaps of the tree leaves and had a contemplative look on his face before nodding to himself with a smile. "I've decided, I'll be a soul reaper." With his decision made Toya ran the rest of the way home to tell Rukia and Renji he's made his choice.

* * *

 **That's all for now my readers, I hope you enjoyed it and please leave a review to let me know what you thought of this chapter. I look forward to reading your reviews as they help me improve my writing and drive me to do my best to make the next chapter better than the last. Till we meet again!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey there my readers, I have finally finished the second chapter of A Shinigami's Journey! First things first, I'd like to announce that I will be issuing a challenge to those who are interested. A friend insisted I read a few of these fanfics that had similar plots and as i read them I got the idea for this challenge. The challenge is Toshiro Hitsugaya losing his memories and wound up adopted into the Kurosaki family. You are free to write how Toshiro loses his memory and with the Kurosakis, the only condition to this is that you have to somehow make Aizen responsible for the memory loss. I wonder how many of you are interested to take my challenge. Unfortunately, I'll have to let time answer that for me as we now begin the second chapter of A Shinigami's Journey!**

* * *

Chapter Two: The Entrance Exam

"Renji, you answered this one wrong again." Toya said pointing to the said question on a sheet of paper.

"Seriously?" Renji looked to where Toya's finger was pointing and groaned when he saw that the white haired teen was right. "Not again!"

"How do you keep answering that question wrong every time Renji?" Rukia asked in exasperation looking at Renji's paper from across the table they were sitting at studying. "It's just basic questions on kido."

"It's not as easy as you think pipsqueak!" Renji shouted getting to his feet glaring at the petite black haired girl.

"What did you just call me?!" Rukia shouted also getting to her feet glaring up at Renji. "It's not my fault that you're too dumb to understand such easy questions!"

"Say that again I dare you!" Renji challenged crossing his arms leaning forward a bit as the two's glares got so intense that sparks were flying.

"I'll say it as many times as you like!" Rukia held up a fist while Toya just looked on nervously. "You're too dumb to-"

"Guys!" Toya shouted getting between the two keeping them at arms length from each other. "You shouldn't fight about this!" He looked to Rukia who just snapped out of her surprise. "Rukia, try explaining the question in a simpler term instead of making unnecessary comments." He then looked to Renji. "Renji, It's alright if you're a little slow, don't let your temper get the better of you and listen carefully to what Rukia's trying to tell you." Toya slowly lowered his arms staying between the two in case they start fighting again. "Now, what do you say we get back to studying? The entrance exam is only three days away."

"Uh..." Was Renji could say still surprised that Toya got between one of his fights with Rukia as he usually just stood to the side and watched them from afar until they cooled down. He rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment when he realized how uncomfortable he and Rukia must have made Toya felt watching their fights. "Yeah, sure."

"Sorry Toya." Rukia apologized sitting back down taking Renji's paper to look over the question before placing it back down as Renji sat down. "Now look here Renji, the reason you keep getting this one wrong is because you're spelling the wording here incorrectly."

"You're right." Renji muttered quickly fixing his mistake before handing it to Rukia. "How's this?"

Rukia looked it over with Toya reading over his shoulder and they both nodded in satisfaction as Rukia looked from the paper to Renji. "Much better, now try to remember this for the actual test and you should be able to pass the written portion of the exam." She looked to Toya who sat back down to his spot on the table between her and Renji. "What about you Toya? Did you have trouble with anything?"

"I'm having trouble understanding this question here." Toya replied pointing to the question on his paper and Rukia leaned forward to get a better look at it showing a box with a male figure with both arms outstretched forward and a black circle on the other end of the box. "It's asking what is the range of Hado #31: Shakkaho when it is flying in a straight line." He ran his hand through his spiky white hair making it even more spiky. "How can anyone know the answer to this?"

"It's really simple Toya." Rukia said as she pulled out a blank sheet of paper and sat next to him and started writing. "As you already know, kido is produced with strong spirit energy, so when you take that into account..."

* * *

Renji let out a shout as he charged at Toya with a downward swing with a broken tree branch and Toya raised his branch up to block it. He and Renji were practicing their swordsmanship in a clearing with branches since they woke up that morning and the sun was now high in the sky. Renji just grinned and continued to strike furiously at Toya keeping him on the defensive before striking with an upward swing forcing the branch out of Toya's hands and flying in the air before positioning his below the other boy's chin as the airborne branch hit the ground.

Toya looked behind him to see that his branch was too far for him to run and pick it up and looked back to Renji raising his hands up in surrender. "You win."

"Heh, was there any doubt?" Renji grinned lowering his branch and tossed it aside dusting his hand off. "You need to be more aggressive Toya, you can't always go on the defensive."

"Easy for you to say." Toya frowned as he placed his hands on his hips hissing when he felt a stinging sensation on his palms. "With you charging at me like a rabid baboon, how can I go on the offensive?"

"That's for you to figure out." Renji said waving a dismissive hand as he turned around and began walking. "Now let's go, we've been out here for quite a while."

"Hey, wait for me!" Toya shouted running after Renji and walked beside him when he caught up. Toya rubbed his wrist as his fingers twitched a little and he felt a stinging sensation on the palms of his hands. "I'm amazed that my hands haven't started bleeding yet, you need to learn to hold back Renji."

"Oh don't be a baby Toya." Renji rolled his eyes crossing his arms. "I didn't strike you that hard."

"My hands say otherwise." Toya retorted showing the palms of his hands to show that they were red and had a few blisters that had Renji cringing. "Still think you didn't strike that hard?"

"Alright, I'm sorry!" Renji said rubbing the back of his neck as they walked through the district. "I can't help it."

"Maybe we should work on your self control before entering the academy." Toya commented slowly making a fist with one hand wincing when he felt said hand sting from the blisters before uncurling his fingers and letting his arm fall to the side. "You might accidentally hurt someone with your aggressive way of fighting."

"You make it sound like I hurt someone everyday!" Renji accused halting and turned to face Toya glaring at the white haired boy.

"Don't you?" Toya countered raising an eyebrow at Renji. "Yesterday you beat the crap out of a thug after falling for his provocations." Renji's eyebrow twitched at that as Toya continued counting off with his fingers being careful not to agitate the blisters on his palms. "Then the day before that you punched a vendor because he was ripping you off. And the day before that was when you-"

"Knock it off!" Renji shouted cutting Toya off and the said boy just laughed before running with Renji after him. "Get back here!"

"Catch me if you can Renji!" Toya shouted back nimbly dodging the other souls that were in his way and sliding under logs that other souls were carrying. He looked behind him to see that Renji was having trouble through the crowd and chuckled as he ducked behind a counter that had a cloth covering it and placed a finger against his lips to the vendor when she gave him a questioning look. He heard Renji closing in to where he was and covered his mouth with both hands to reign in a laugh when he heard a few curses.

"Hey, have you seen a guy with white hair and gold eyes come this way?" Renji asked the vendor lady who just shook her head and Renji thanked her before running off again.

Toya came out from under the table looking left and right for any sign of Renji before thanking the vendor lady and running off the way he came. "Renji needs to learn not to lose his temper all the time." He shook his head and slowed to a stop resting his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath. "Hopefully what I'm doing will help with that."

"Cut the guy some slack would ya?" Toya looked up to see Rukia looking down to him with her arms crossed. "Keep it up and Renji might actually kill you."

"I just thought if I annoyed him enough he would learn to not let his temper get the better of him." Toya replied straightening himself dusting himself off only to winced when his hands touch the cloth of his kimono. He looked to the palms of his hands noticing that the blisters got worse. "I forgot, I should treat these."

"Karma." Rukia smirked grabbing Toya's wrist and started to drag him. "That's what you get for messing with Renji, Toya."

"I had good intentions, though!" Toya complained and Rukia just rolled her eyes and continued to drag the white haired teen ignoring his protests.

"Let's just put ointment on your hands and wrap them in bandages." Rukia said as they entered their shack to Toya's room and force the teen to sit down. "The entrance exams are tomorrow and we don't need you flunking because you couldn't hold the pencil for the written portion of the exam." She then left the room leaving Toya by himself who looked at his blistered palms.

"That's the last time I spar with Renji." Toya muttered under his breath slowly clenching his hands into fists but quickly winced at the stinging sensation and unclenched them. "I hope he takes it easy when we get into the academy." His eyes focused on the number twenty tattoo on his foot frowning. "And I hope the Seireitei have the answers I'm looking for."

"Alright, let's see your hands Toya." Toya looked up to see Rukia walking back in with a small jar and a roll of bandages. She sat next to Toya who held out his hands palms facing up and winced when she started to apply the cold ointment being careful not to irritate the blisters. "You and Renji need to be more careful when you practice your swordplay."

"Tell it to Renji, he's like a rabid baboon when we practice." Toya muttered as he watched Rukia wrapped his hands with the bandages after applying the ointment. "I feel like a training dummy for him."

"You pretty much are." Rukia said bluntly tightening a knot on the bandages of one hand before wrapping Toya's other hand. She looked away from the bandaged hands to see Toya pouting and she shook her head with a smirk in amusement. "Don't give me that look, you only have yourself to blame for not taking Renji seriously."

"But I am taking him seriously." Toya protested looking down to his bandaged hands. "It's just that I'm not used to fighting with a weapon." He stood up and walked out of the room with Rukia following. "I just hope I'll pass the entrance exam tomorrow."

"You'll be fine Toya." Rukia said encouragingly patting him on the back. "You've worked real hard ever since you told us you decided to be a soul reaper." She then had a thoughtful look on her face. "Come to think of it, you never told us why you decided on that when you were so unsure not long before."

"Let's just say I made a life changing encounter." Toya said cryptically as he knelt down and arranged some wood in the fire pit while Rukia prepared the ingredients for their dinner. "I wouldn't be alive right now if they didn't show up."

"You were attacked?" Rukia asked with side eyes dropping a carrot in shock.

Toya nodded as he started the fire before getting to his feet and picking up a bucket. "I'm going to get some water, I'll be right back." He gave a smile before running out not giving Rukia time to respond and went to the river that was in front of their shack. Toya's smile turned into a frown as he got to one knee at the edge of the river and dunked the bucket into the water to fill it and pulled it out placing it to the side. Toya sat crossed legged picking up rocks and tossing them in the water as he thought about his encounter with the Hollow and two soul reapers. He never told Rukia or Renji about the Hollow or the soul reapers so they wouldn't worry about him as he was troubling them enough by just staying with them until he remembers who he was and where he came from.

' _I would be dead right now if those two hadn't showed up when they did._ ' Toya thought dishearteningly tossing another rock in the river before looking at his reflection on the water's surface. Toya gritted his teeth when the image of the Hollow's mouth mere inches from devouring him replayed in his head and that he had to be saved. ' _Why did that man suggest I become a soul reaper? I couldn't even handle one Hollow._ ' He sighed tossing another rock watching as the ripples distorted his reflection before tossing another when the ripples settle. ' _Is it too late to say I change my mind?_ '

"What are you doing out here?" Toya flinched at the sudden voice and looked behind him to see Renji standing behind him with his arms crossed. Renji noticed the bucket of water and raised an eyebrow at Toya "Isn't it your turn to help Rukia with dinner today?"

"Sorry, Renji." Toya said giving an absentminded smile getting to his feet and picked up the bucket. "I was just getting some water and I got lost in thought."

"What were you thinking about?" Renji asked uncrossing his arms. "It must have been something serious if you didn't notice me approaching."

"It was nothing." Toya lied walking past Renji to go back to the shack but stopped when Renji grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Nice try." Renji turned Toya to face him and took the bucket from the white haired teen. "I may not have known you for long, but I can tell when something's bothering you, Toya." He set the bucket down before sitting crossed legged and gestured Toya to do the same. "Out with it, what's bothering you?"

Toya looked at Renji for a moment before letting out a sigh knowing that he wasn't getting out of this. He sat in front of Renji in the same sitting position keeping his eyes on hands that were resting on his ankles. "I'm starting to have doubts."

"Doubts about what?" Renji asked raising an eyebrow at how Toya wasn't looking him in the eye and wasn't his usual friendly self. When Toya didn't respond, Renji got a handful of water from the bucket and splashed it against Toya's face who let out a startled yell wiping the water out of his eyes and grinned when the white haired teen halfheartedly glared at him. "I'll splash you again if you don't answer my question."

Toya puffed out his cheeks childishly before sighing. "I'm... I'm thinking of not taking the entrance exam after all."

"Why?" Renji blinked in surprise at Toya's response. "You worked so hard to get where you are now, so why stop?"

"Remember the day I decided to enter the academy with you and Rukia?" Toya asked looking back to his hands and when he didn't hear a response he guessed Renji nodded his head. "It was after I was attacked by a Hollow."

"You were attacked by a Hollow?!" Renji shouted in shock.

Toya nodded and continued with his explanation. "I was so scared when I saw it, so I ran as fast as I could." His hands shook when he remembered the fear that swelled up deep inside him as he ran from the snake-like Hollow. "After a while, it went a different direction making me think it gave up on me." He shook his head balling his hands into tight fists to stop the shaking. "But I was wrong, it went after a girl. I don't know what came over me, I just jumped in and saved her when the Hollow tried to eat her."

"What happened after that?" Toya and Renji jumped at the sudden question and looked to the source of the voice to see Rukia. "Toya was taking a while, so I came to see what was taking him so long and overheard you guys." She then looked to Toya and took a seat next to him. "So, what happened next?"

Toya hesitated to tell them the rest, fearing their reactions, but went on with his story nonetheless. "After I had the girl run and she was out of danger..." He nervously looked to Rukia and Renji before dropping the bombshell. "I picked up a tree branch and tried to fight the Hollow."

"YOU FOUGHT A HOLLOW?!" Rukia and Renji shouted and Toya leaned back when they got in his face. "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND TOYA?!"

"I know, I know, I'm an idiot." Toya admitted before trying to defend himself. "But I couldn't just leave that girl to die, what about you two?" Seeing that they couldn't argue with that he continued. "Anyway, it's pretty obvious I had my ass handed to me and I almost got eaten." He felt a chill go up his spine when he remembered his near death experience. "But then a soul reaper came to my rescue and killed the Hollow." A hand found itself on top of his head where Kaien's was. "He said it was brave of me to risk my life for another." He lowered his hand to rest on his ankle again looking to Rukia and Renji. "He was the one who suggested I enter the academy."

"So that's how you made your decision." Renji said crossing his arms as he processed everything Toya told them with Rukia doing the same. He then had a confused look on his face. "But why are you having doubts when an actual soul reaper suggested you enter the academy?"

"I couldn't even hold off one Hollow." Toya muttered dejectedly lowering his head. "I know I don't have experience in fighting and that my opponent was a Hollow, but I didn't last a minute against it." He balled his hands into fists ignoring the stinging sensation on his palms as his nails dig into his skin. "If I can't last a minute against a Hollow, then why did he tell me to enter the academy?" Rukia and Renji gave each other a worried glance to each other before nodding and they each sat beside Toya each placing a reassuring hand on his shoulders. Toya looked to them in surprise.

"You can be an idiot sometimes, Toya." Renji said with a grin and Toya looked to the red head. "That's why we're entering the academy, to get better to fight the Hollow's."

"Renji's right, Toya." Toya then looked to Rukia who was giving him a stern look. "What you did was stupid beyond belief." Her stern look then became a smile. "But, what wasn't stupid is that you saved a life that day. And just think of how many other lives you could save when you become a full fledged soul reaper."

Toya looked from Rukia to Renji and back before he thought back to the day he fought the Hollow. He remembered that he was scared, but also determined to prevent it from going after that girl. When he thought about it, he really was an idiot for thinking he could fight a Hollow with just a tree branch and couldn't help but laugh at the ridiculousness of what was bothering him to the point of tears getting confused stares from Rukia and Renji.

"Sorry." Toya apologized wiping away tears from his eyes. "I just realized you guys were right." He got to his feet and started to stretch before looking back to Rukia and Renji giving them a big smile showing teeth. "I'll do it, I'll take the entrance exam." Hearing that got smiles from his two friends and they went back into the shack to have their dinner and go to bed.

* * *

Rukia, Renji, and Toya were standing in a room in the Soul Reaper Academy the next day with other applicants as they wait for the instructors. Toya nervously looked around the room as he did a head count of who was present and realize that there was at least half of what they started with when they entered the academy to take the written exam. The instructors only told them to wait in the room while they prepared the second part of the exam.

"So, what do you think the second part of the exam will be?" Renji's question snapped Toya out of his thoughts and looked to the red head who was talking to Rukia.

"I heard that they change the second part every year." Rukia replied holding her chin with her thumb and index finger in thought. "We'll only know when they call us in."

"Alright, it's time to begin the entrance exam." Said the examiner after he walked in holding a clipboard. "When your name is called please follow me to the next room to begin the second portion of your exam." He then started calling names and guided them to the exam room. 80 applicants later the examiner came back in the room. "Rukia, your next."

"Yes sir!" Rukia them turned to Renji and Toya. "Wish me luck." Then she left with the examiner.

"What do you think her chances of passing are?" Renji asked resting his hands behind his head as they waited for their petite friend to come back and tell them her results.

"This is Rukia we're talking about." Toya replied grinning confidently to Renji. "She'll pass no problem."

It was then Rukia walked back in with a grin on her face.

"How did it go?" Renji asked after she was in front of them.

"I passed." Rukia said triumphantly puffing out her chest.

"That's great Rukia!" Renji shouted excitedly smiling. "Now me and Toya need to wait for our names to be called and we'll all go to the academy together."

"Renji Abarai, follow me." The examiner said after looking over the list of applicants left.

"Yes sir!" Renji left with him.

Rukia and Toya stood in the corner of the room and Toya noticed that there were people staring at him. Renji walked back in and told them he passed which they were happy for him. They past the time talking as more applicants were called. There were only two applicants left that haven't been tested yet and one of them was Toya. The examiner called the other applicant and they left.

"You're the last one up Toya." Renji stated as they were the only ones left in the room. Toya nodded and took deep calming breaths.

"Toya, your next." The examiner said after walking in getting Toya's attention.

"Good luck." Renji and Rukia said at once as Toya walked out of the room following the examiner. They stopped in front of a door and the examiner opened it motioning Satoshi to go in before closing it. In the room was the headmaster and four of the academy's staff. In the center of the room was a floating glass ball.

"Your name young man?" The headmaster questioned.

Toya gulped nervously before replying. "Toya, sir."

The headmaster nodded and motioned Toya to stand in front of the ball which he did. "That orb was created by the department of research and development. you have to focus your spirit energy into it and it will change color depending on how strong it is." Toya focused his eyes on the ball as the headmaster continued his explanation. "All you have to do is place your hands on the orb and focus your spirit energy into it."

Toya nodded and placed his hands on either side of the orb before taking a deep breath and closed his eyes in concentration as he focused his spirit energy into the orb. Nothing happened at first, but soon the orb started to turn blue, then red and when everyone thought that it was gonna stop there the orb slowly started changing color again to silver which shocked everyone. When the orb returned to normal Toya opened his eyes to see the examiners were staring at him with shocked looks which made him feel uneasy and nervous.

"Is something wrong?" Toya's question snapped them out of it and the headmaster shook his head.

"It's nothing." The headmaster said dismissing what transpired for a later time. "Well congratulations Toya, you pass."

Toya had a big smile on his face before bowing to the people in front of him. "Thank you so much sir." Then he let the room leaving everyone to discuss what they saw.

* * *

"Is that thing working correctly?" Asked one of the female instructors not believing what she saw. "There's no way that can be right."

"We had the department of research and development look at it before the exam." A male instructor said crossing his arms. "That thing's as accurate as a straight arrow hitting the bullseye."

"Come to think of it, I did sense a little spiritual pressure from where the applicants were." Said another male instructor resting his chin in his hand. "Do you think it was that kid?"

"It had to be." Another female instructor said. "Some of the other applicants didn't even get past red."

"For now let's keep a close eye on this one and see how he progresses." The headmaster said causing the other instructors to nod in agreement.

* * *

Toya opened the door and walked in the room to see Rukia and Renji standing in front of the door with anticipation in their eyes.

"Well?" They asked leaning forward a little causing the Toya to sweat drop and back up a little.

A big smile made its way across Toya's face as he gave them the peace sign. "I passed." They cheered hearing that.

"Looks like we're all in the academy." Renji said excitedly a grin on his face.

"Now we just need to wait for our uniforms then come back here to find out which class we're in." Rukia said as they left.

As they walked through the district, Renji lightly nudged Toya with an elbow grinning. "I bet you're relieved now that the entrance exam is over huh Toya?"

Toya let out a small laugh. "Yeah, I was so nervous I thought my heart was going to stop."

"Well, we won't have to worry about that now that the entrance exams are over." Rukia said as they entered their home looking around with a nostalgic smile. "Soon, we'll be saying goodbye to this place."

"Yeah." Toya nodded looking around himself. "But one things for sure, I'll never forget the time we spent here together."

"That's a given." Renji said stopping at the the door running his hand over the worn wood. "Toya may not have been here long, but it's where everything started for all of us." Renji then entered the shack and into the room where the beds were. "Now let's get some rest, best make the most of this place before we leave for good."

* * *

Toya laid in his bed staring at the moon out the window reaching out to it closing his hand into a fist before bringing it over his face and opened. His eyes then went to his right foot where his tattoo lied before quietly tossing the covers off him and got to his feet. Toya looked to Renji who was snoring loudly tossing and turning in his sleep before slowly walking out of the shack sitting at the edge of the river to stare at the moon's reflection on the water's surface.

"It's finally starting." Toya whispered looking up to the moon watching as the stars twinkle around it. "My journey to become a soul reaper." He then looked to his foot again lightly brushing his fingers along the tattoo. "And to learn who I really am." Toya yawned before getting to his feet and going back in the shack to get some sleep.

* * *

 **Now onto your reviews my lovely readers!**

 **Shadow** **knight1121: I'm happy to hear you thought it was intriguing. I hope this chapter meets your expectations and I look forward to hear from you again.**

 **HunterHQ: You serious think there's a good balance of humor and seriousness? That's good, I was worried I didn't put enough of one or the other. I would love to tell you about Toya's past, but that would spoilers so I'll keep it to myself. Considering that he's in the soul society, him being associated to spirits is pretty high. Yes, Rukia did give Ichigo her powers. Will she do it again, that is something you have to find out by reading. Toya's Shikai and Bankai is something I'm keeping under lock and key until the time is right.**

 **Karsap: Yes, this takes place before canon. I do plan to continue this fanfic and I won't abandon any of my works and I will see them through to the end!**

 **With that done, I bid you all farewell until we meet again.**


	3. Chapter 3

**It is time for chapter three of A Shinigami's Journey my readers! I know what you're thinking; Already? Didn't you update this like a week ago? I surprised even myself when I finished writing this, the ideas just kept popping in my head and the next thing I knew I had the next chapter ready to go. Anyway, I just wanted to say that the chapter is done and I hope you enjoy reading it like you did with my other chapters and fics.**

* * *

Chapter Three: The Academy

Toya held up the soul reaper academy boys uniform which was a blue shitagi and white kosode with a circular symbol on both breasts of the kosode. He then look to his bed to see a pair of blue hakama, socks, and sandals. ' _So this is the academy uniform._ ' He looked at the kosode from the front then the back. ' _Not what I pictured it to be._ '

"Aren't you going to get changed Toya?" Rukia asked as she walked in from another room startling the white haired teen.

"Yeah, I was just about to." Toya replied as he placed the upper part of his uniform down and turned to Rukia who was wearing the same uniform as his only the blue was replaced with red. Toya looked around the room noticing that they were missing someone. "Where's Renji?"

"I don't know." Rukia shrugged before sighing. "I was going to look for him after you changed."

"Alright, just give me a few minutes and we'll go look for Renji." Toya picked up his uniform and walked into the room Rukia just left to change. Toya came out wearing his uniform to see Rukia standing by the door with her arms crossed before they left to look for Renji. "What are the chances Renji went ahead of us?"

"I wouldn't put it past that idiot." Rukia sighed running a hand through her hair. "Let's look around for him before we just leave him behind." Toya nodded in agreement as they continued their search for their red headed friend. After searching around for what felt like hours they finally found Renji sleeping on a tree branch and Rukia who had an irk mark on her forehead. "What's he doing sleeping all the way up there?"

"Fan of heights?" Toya replied shrugging looking to his sleeping friend. "Anyway, we might want to wake him up before we're late for our first day in the academy." He then started climbing up the tree until he reached the branch Renji was sleeping in and lightly shook. "Renji, wake up."

Renji just groaned and lazily swatted Toya's hand off his shoulder. Toya looked down to Rukia and shook his head causing her to sigh before climbing up and Toya moved to a branch to give her room. When Rukia stopped next to Renji she used her foot to push him off the branch causing him to fall and land on his back letting out a moan of pain. Rukia climbed down followed by Toya who felt sorry for the red head.

"What was that for?" Renji complained as he got to his feet rubbing his sore back.

"That was for not waking up when Toya did it the polite way." Rukia said her hands on her hips before turning to Toya. "Do we still have time?"

Toya looked up to the sky then to where the academy is before turning to Rukia. "Probably, if we run."

"Then let's go!" Renji shouted as he grabbed Rukia and Toya's wrists before running which they soon followed after being dragged. They ran for thirty minutes before Renji spoke again as they ran. "Great, now we're going to be late for our first day of school!"

"Don't blame this on us!" Rukia said running to Renji's left. "What were you doing sleeping in a tree? We were looking everywhere for you!"

"I'll do whatever I want to." Renji said side glaring at Rukia as Toya ran a little behind them. "It's none of your business where I sleep anyway."

"Agh, we should've just left without you!" Rukia yelled in frustration. "It would've served you right!"

"Guys!" Toya shouted getting between the two. "Can we save this for later? We're going to be late!"

"Toya's right." Rukia nodded as they approached the Shuwaimon. "There's time for this later."

"State your business approaching the gate." The man said when the three stopped in front of him.

"That guy's huge." Toya whispered nervously when he saw that the man before them towered over the houses in the district.

"We're new students of the soul reaper academy!" Rukia stepped forward and shouted so the big man could hear her.

"Hmm." He leaned forward a little to get a closer look. After looking them over for a minute he nodded before straightening. "Very well, I will open the gate." He turned around to face the giant gate and knelt down to place his fingers under it before lifting it up with great strength. After it was fully opened he turned his head to face Rukia, Renji, and Toya. "Welcome to the Seireitei."

Rukia and Renji started running in and Toya stopped and gave a grateful bow to the gatekeeper. "Thank you." Then he ran after his friends.

After entering the academy, they lined up with the rest of the students for the opening ceremony and faced the headmaster as he gave his speech.

"Welcome new students to Soul Reaper Academy." The headmaster started and Toya who was behind Renji looked around trying to memorize as many faces as he can while listening to the headmaster's speech. "You're now part of a proud tradition. A unique school dedicated to building the stealth forces of the thirteen court guard squads of the future. Apply yourselves diligently to your studies and uphold the honor of our school."

After the speech the students were given a piece of paper that held what class their in and their schedule. After Rukia, Renji, and Toya met up with each other to compare what classes they had together.

"Looks like you and me are in the advanced class Toya." Renji said grinning as he looked over his and Toya's paper.

"How is it your in the advanced?!" Rukia demanded angrily pointing at Renji.

"I guess it's talent." Renji said with his hands on his hips breaking out in an arrogant laugh.

"Isn't your spirit energy ball smaller than Rukia's though Renji?" Toya questioned causing Renji to face fault.

"Exactly!" Rukia exclaimed pointing at Toya. "Thank you, it should be me in the advanced class."

"You three!" An instructor yelled getting their attention. "It's time for classes to start, get to your classrooms."

"Yes sir!" The three shouted back and went to their classrooms.

* * *

Toya and Renji were in the same class where a bald man with glasses walked into the front of the class stopping at the center before turning to face them.

"Let me introduce myself students." The man started as the light shined off his glasses. "My name is Gengoro Onabara. I'm also pleased to inform you that of all incoming freshmen your test scores on the entrance exam were the highest, in other words welcome to the advanced class, congratulations." Toya looked around the class and saw that Renji was two rows behind him resting his chin on his left hand as he listens to the instructor. "Of course this means that expectations for you are higher as well. You must train hard and strive to not merely serve your future squad, but to excel in each of your various pursuits."

' _I'm glad I know at least one person in this class._ ' Toya thought looking back to Renji who grinned when he caught Toya looking to him. Toya smiled back and turned to face the front getting ready for their first lesson. ' _I wonder what we'll learn today._ '

"For today's lesson." Gengoro started turning to the backboard behind him picking up a piece of chalk before writing on the chalkboard. "We'll be learning the duties of soul reapers." After he finished writing, Gengoro turned back to the class tapping the blackboard with the chalk that had drawings of a person with a wispy tail in place for legs and a chain on their chest. "Can anyone tell me what this drawing is and what we are to do with it?" The students looked among each other while Toya raised his hand. "Yes, young man?"

"That is a Whole, which is the soul of the deceased." Toya replied as he tried to remember everything he studied with Rukia and Renji. "Our duty as soul reapers is to perform Konso on these spirits and allow them passage to the Soul Society."

Gengoro nodded erasing the drawing. "Correct, our duty is to assist all souls find their way to the Soul Society so they find peace until they rejoin the cycle of rebirth." He then drew a humanoid creature wearing a mask before turning to the class again. "These are Hollows, which are a race of creatures which are born from human souls who, for various reasons, do not cross over to Soul Society after their death and stay in the World of the Living for too long and lose their hearts to despair or regret. They are corrupt spirits with supernatural powers which devour the souls of both living and deceased humans."

Toya went still at the mention of Hollow and a chill went down his spine when he thought back to his encounter with a Hollow. ' _I'm so glad I'm alive right now, I don't want to know what it's like to be eaten._ '

Renji noticed how Toya went still at the mention of Hollows. ' _He must still not be over nearly getting killed by a Hollow a while back. I should talk to him about it during break._ '

"Once a soul becomes a Hollow, it is driven by an eternal and insatiable hunger to devour other souls, living or dead, to fill the void caused by its descent." Gengoro continued with the lesson getting both Toya and Renji's attention. "While their former obsession often becomes their first target, most Hollows will eventually become mindless creatures concerned only with finding the most potent souls to devour. Stronger and more evil Hollows are often able to retain some of their intelligence in Hollow form, making them more dangerous than the average Hollow. Any spirit who is not guided to Soul Society by a soul reaper via Konsō may eventually turn into a Hollow." He then drew a Whole again without the chain and an arrow pointing to the Hollow drawing before turning to the class. "The best way to identify a Hollow is the masks they wear and the hole in their chests which signify the loss of their heart. Any questions?"

"What happens to the souls that the Hollows devour?" A male student in the back asked raising his hand.

"A good question." Gengoro turned to the blackboard erasing the drawings. "The souls the Hollows devour become a part of the Hollow until we souls reapers defeat it." He then drew a Hollow and a katana. "To defeat a Hollow is to split the mask and head in half or inflict a fatal wound like cutting them in half with our Zanpakuto, the Zanpakuto purifies the Hollows and allows them passage to the Soul Society as ordinary Wholes along with the souls they devour." Toya paid close attention as he made notes of everything Gengoro was teaching them.

* * *

"Greetings students." A male instructor greeted the class. "My name is Kensuke Kanbara, and I'll be your instructor for kido."

As the instructor was going on explaining kido Toya felt a tap on his right shoulder and turned to see a boy appearing to be the same age as him with long green hair tied in a high ponytail and blue eyes giving him a goofy smile.

"Hey, I'm Sakuya Minamoto." He greeted holding out a hand. "What's your name?"

Toya looked at the hand before held out a hand and shook his. "Toya."

"Nice to meet you Toya." Sakuya said closing his eyes and giving Toya a toothy grin. "What say we be friends?"

Toya blinked at Sakuya in surprise, they just met and he wants to be friends? Toya gave a small smile and nodded. "Sure, I look forward to getting to know you, Sakuya."

"Same here." Sakuya continued to smile as we turned to the front as the instructor finished his explanation in kido.

"Alright, group one to the line!" Kensuke said as the first row of students stood up and walked until they were in front of a white line. "All of you, you will now demonstrate hado, begin!"

"Right!" The first group said at once as they held out a hand palm facing the targets as a girl with two pigtails started chanting. "Ruler, mask of flesh and blood, all things in the universe fly, that which names all in nature, gathering of heat and war, beyond the seas in reverse, take steps to the south." As she chanted a red ball of energy appeared in her right hand. " **Hado 31: Shakkahou!** " They then fired with most of them not even reaching the target and the girls destroying the corner of her which brought a smile to her face.

"Very good!" Kensuke said as the first group went and sat behind the fourth group. "Next group!"

"Did you see that?" Sakuya asked Toya with wide eyes. "Not even half of them even reached their targets!"

"It was only the corner, but that was a pretty good shot." Toya muttered as he inspected the damage the pig-tailed girl's kido did. "I think she has a talent for kido." There conversation was interrupted when the class were muttering to each other about the blond student in the second group and when Toya looked over to the targets he saw that one of them only had about a millimeter left on the bottom. Toya's eyes widened as the second group went to sit behind the first group. "No way, I think that was a perfect bullseye."

"That was incredible!" Sakuya exclaimed silently looking at Toya with eyes that seem to shimmer in awe. "He did that in one try, I can't wait to see how I'll do!"

Satoshi noticed Renji who was in front of him eyeing the blond. ' _Uh oh, I think Renji's going to try and show off._ '

"Group three, to the line!" Kensuke said.

"Yes sir!" Renji stood up with the rest of his group and walked to the line and Renji held out his hand as a red ball of energy formed. " **Hado 31: Shakkahou!** " The ball exploded in his face which the force of the explosion pushed everyone near him back leaving him covered in a cloud of smoke.

"He could've killed us all." The pigtailed girl said using her hands to keep her from falling on her back as a boy student had his legs over his head.

"What was he doing?" The blond questioned. "The fool."

"What the hell?!" Sakuya shouted hiding behind Toya. "Is he trying to be a suicide bomber or something?!"

"Oh, Renji." Toya groaned placing a hand on his forehead closing his eyes and shook his head in embarrassment. "Why did you tried to show off?"

"You know that guy?" Sakuya asked Toya as he came out of hiding.

"Yeah, we came from the same district." Toya replied as the smoke cleared to show Renji covered in soot and his uniform sliding off his shoulder a little bit.

"You, special instruction after class." Kensuke said as he pointed to Renji leaving the class to laugh at him.

"Yes sir." Renji said and everyone got back into their rows.

"Next is group four, to the line!" Kensuke said as Toya and his group stood up and walked to the line. "Begin!"

"Right!" Group four said at the same time as Toya took a deep breath to calm his nerves before holding out his right hand as he remembered the chant the pig-tailed girl recited. "Ruler, mask of flesh and blood, everything in the universe fly, that which names all in nature, gathering of heat and war, beyond the seas in reverse, take steps to the south." A ball of red energy formed in his hand as he chanted. " **Hado 31: Shakkahou!** " Toya fired and hit the target completely destroying it which surprised everyone. Toya felt their stares on him which made him feel uncomfortable before taking a seat in the back next to Sakuya.

"Looks like this class has three future kido experts." Sakuya said nudging Toya grinning. "Great job, Toya!"

"Thanks." Toya blushed at the praise as the next group began.

* * *

After Kido was Zanjustu where Renji was brutally swinging his wooden sword causing his opponent who was the blond haired student to do nothing but dodge and block his blows. After a while Renji found an opening and thrusted his wooden sword striking his opponent in the right shoulder knocking him off his feet and onto his back.

"Match, Abarai!" The Zanjutsu instructor called as Renji started to take deep breathes.

"Are you hurt, can you get up?" A female student asked the blond as some of the class and the instructor went to see if he was alright. The same student then turned to Renji. "You didn't have to be so rough!"

"Izuru, are you alright?" The instructor asked.

"Yes sir." The blond replied holding his right shoulder. Seeing this made Renji irritated and he left with Toya following.

"They're right you know." Toya said as he walked next to Renji before they sat under a tree outside. "You were a bit rough, were you trying to make up for what happened in kido class?"

"Shut up." Renji said before laying down closing his eyes to enjoy the sound of the birds chirping. Toya saw this and decided to close his eyes as well before his ears perked to the sound of footsteps and opened his eyes to see the blond walking towards them.

"Resting up I see." He said causing Renji to turn his head towards him.

"Oh it's you." Renji said sitting up raising a knee and resting his arm on it.

"I wouldn't mind joining you there, that okay?" The blond asked.

"Uh, sure." Renji said awkwardly.

"Thanks." He sat between Renji and Toya massaging his numb wrists. "Gotta admit, you really let me have it in class. I was so overwhelmed by your strength that I couldn't even counterattack." He then turned to Renji smiling. "My whole arm is still numb."

"Well, I'm sorry about that." Renji apologized. "I didn't mean anything by it. "But I kind of messed up at target practice earlier. So I felt like I needed to make up for that."

"You mean where you almost blew up the entire class?" Toya teased which earned him a glare from Renji and he just chuckled.

"Zan, ken, so, ki." The blond started listing off. "Each of these four disciplines must be mastered before we can become soul reapers. We've definitely got our work cut out for us if that's gonna happen."

"Well, yeah." Renji said. "I guess so." The blond then extended a hand to Renji.

"Name's Izuru Kira, hi." The blond introduced smiling. "It's certainly a pleasure to meet you fellow freshmen."

Renji looked at the hand then to Izuru. "Introductions and a handshake, huh? Your family must be from the good side of town." Izuru was confused at that. "Manners aren't exactly my style, but my name's Renji Abarai, and nice to meet you too."

"Thank you, Renji." Izuru smiled then turned to Toya. "And may I ask your name?"

"My name's Toya." Toya said smiling holding out a hand to Izuru. "It's nice to meet you, Izuru."

"Likewise Toya." Izuru shook the hand to noticed a few students heading to the front of the campus. "Huh, what's going on?"

The three made their way to the front of the campus to see a crowd gathering at the entrance. In the back of the group Toya saw the pigtailed girl from kido class trying to see what was going on.

"Hey, what is everybody looking at?" The pig tailed girl ask.

"Hm?" A male student to her right turned his head to her and answered. "Oh, one of the court guard squads captains is suppose to be coming here any minute to review the class."

"Really, a full captain?" The girl exclaimed in surprise as she was pushed into the crowd. Curious, Renji, Izuru, and Toya decided to get a closer look. When Toya was able to get a clear view, he saw a man with brown scholarly hair wearing square black frame glasses, a black shihakusho and a white coat with the kanji for five on the back. Behind him was a man with silver hair and squinted eyes looking like they're closed wearing a black shihakusho and a badge on his left arm that has a lily of the valley flower and the kanji for five on it.

' _So that's a captain and lieutenant._ ' Toya thought as the duo walked past and entered the academy. ' _I wonder what squad I'll be assigned to when I graduate._ '

* * *

"So this is the dorms, huh?" Renji mused as he, Izuru, and Toya stood in front of the boys dormitory.

"Looks like it." Izuru nodded as they entered the building before turning to Renji and Toya. "I'm going to my room to unpack, I suggest you guys do the same."

"I'll do that later." Toya said waving a hand. "I want to work on my swordsmanship before going to bed."

"You need a sparing partner?" Renji asked grinning.

"No." Toya immediately replied giving Renji a side glance. "You're too aggressive when we spar. I'm trying to improve, not lose feeling in my arms."

"Come on, don't be like that." Renji looped an arm over Toya's shoulder. "It's because I'm aggressive that you were able to hold your own against that one guy during Zanjutsu practice."

Toya knew who Renji was talking about, Toya's opponent was twice his size and his strikes were so powerful Toya spent most of their match dodging and blocking. Toya was lucky that he was more nimble than his opponent and was able to feign an overhead strike before quickly switching to a side strike winning him the match. Toya thought about for a moment before nodding. "Alright, just try to hold back alright?"

"Deal." Renji looked to Izuru. "We'll catch ya later Izuru."

"Alright, be careful while you practice." Izuru waved to the two friends before walking down the hall to go to his room.

"Let's get to the training hall so we can practice, Renji" Toya said and Renji nodded as they walked out of the dorms and back into the academy's training hall. They each took a practice sword and got in position facing each other hold their practice swords with both hands. "You ready Renji?"

Renji grinned in response. "I should be asking you that, so far you haven't beaten me in swordplay."

Toya grinned back tightening his grip on his practice sword. "Let's see if I can change that." He then brought his sword to the side and charged at Renji before swinging which was parried away and Toya jumped to the side when Renji did a downward strike. Quickly turning around, Toya brought his sword up to block another strike from the red head. Toya struggled when Renji applied pressure to his strike before pushing the red head back with all his might and attempted a counterattack with a side swing that was dodged and Renji made a thrust at Toya's shoulder knocking him off his feet and onto his back.

"That's one point for me." Renji said confidently resting his practice sword on his shoulder as Toya got to his feet. "Ready for round two?"

Toya dusted off nonexistent dust off his shoulder before gripping his practice sword with both hands again. "It wouldn't be practice if I went down after one round."

"That's the spirit!" Renji smirked before he charged at Toya swung his practice sword. Toya side stepped the strike and aimed a strike of his own on Renji's wrists who moved back and swung his sword upwards forcing Toya to let go as his sword flew over his head before positioning the tip under Toya's chin. "I win again."

"I thought you said you were going to hold back." Toya muttered grumpily going to pick up his sword before turning back to a grinning Renji. "This time I'll get you." He ran towards Renji and made a downward swing but quickly changed it to a body strike when Renji raised his sword to block catching the red head by surprise when the strike landed knocking him down on his behind. Toya grinned reaching to Renji to help him up. "Looks like I finally won a point off you, Renji."

Renji grinned back taking the hand and Toya pulled him up. "That was just a lucky hit, but good job either way."

"Want to continue?" Toya asked getting into position. "I think I'm getting the hang of your fighting style."

"Don't cry when I knock you to the floor." Renji got into position and the two ran at each other and interlocked their swords.

* * *

The next day, Toya was walking down the halls letting out a yawn. "We ended up practicing until dawn." He entered the classroom and took his seat resting his arms on his desk laying his head on them. ' _Even though I said I was never going to spar with him again, Renji is a good practice partner because he doesn't hold back._ ' The door opened before Renji and Izuru walked in. ' _I guess their friends now._ '

"Yo, Toya!" Toya jumped when Sakuya suddenly appeared next to him. "Did you sleep well last night?"

"Oh, hey Sakuya." Toya greeted when he realized who it was and let out another yawn. "I didn't sleep at all, I was practicing with Renji all night."

"The suicide bomber?" Sakuya blinked in surprise when realization dawned on him. "Oh yeah, you said you were from the same district."

Toya chuckled at Sakuya's nickname for his red headed friend and Renji probably heard it if his twitching eyebrow was any indication. "Yeah, he fights like a rabid baboon when we were practicing our swordplay. But he's a nice guy when you get use to his temper."

"Hey, Toya." Renji greeted as he and Izuru approached the white haired teen. "How ya holding up?"

"Doing my best not to fall asleep." Toya said in a joking manner sitting straight up. "I think we overdid it last night." He then nodded to Izuru. "Morning Izuru, did you unpack everything alright?"

"Yes, I did." Izuru replied as he and Renji took a seat in front of Toya and Sakuya. "How did your spar go?"

"Toya's like a sponge." Renji answered for Toya. "In his third try last night, he managed to land a blow on me when he never could before." He grinned to his white haired friend. "He quickly learned how I fight and developed a way to counter it."

"I just made a few feints and struck when you made a blind spot, Renji." Toya said modestly rubbing the back of his head. "Sure it took me a while, but at least I can now land a few blows on you."

"So I take it you guys spared even in the rukon district?" Sakuya questioned watching the exchange between the two friends.

"We started sparing about a week before the entrance exams." Toya replied looking down to his right foot where his number twenty tattoo was under his sock then to Renji with a smirk. "And Renji was a brutal teacher when I asked him to teach me how to fight."

"No pain, no gain Toya." Renji said grinning. "I did said I wasn't going to go easy on you when you asked."

"I remember." Toya nodded as Gengoro walked in holding a clipboard. "Oh, we should save our talk for later." The others nodded in agreement and turned their attention to the front of the class.

"Before we begin, I want you to come to the front of the class when I call your names." Gengoro said as he looked at the clipboard in his hand. "Toya." Toya blinked when he was called first as he got up and walked down the steps to stand in front of Gengoro. Gengoro reached under the podium and brought out a katana with a red hilt and a blank rectangular tsuba in a red sheath. "This is an Asauchi, or a nameless Zanpakuto, these are given to you freshmen where you must spend every waking moment with, and as you progress in your training, you will slowly imprint the essence of your soul into it. This is how you will guide and mold your own unique Zanpakuto." He then held out the Asauchi to Toya who took it in his hands staring at the sheathed blade in awe before going back to his seat as Gengoro started calling other students to obtain their Asauchi.

' _This is going to be my Zanpakuto?_ ' Toya thought as he light ran his fingers over the sheath before a small smile formed on his face. ' _I'm looking forward to meeting you, partner._ '

* * *

 **It review replying time!**

 **Shadow** **knight1121 : Hope you liked this chapter like you did the others and I too am looking forward how I will have Toya interact with future characters.**

 **Karsap : I haven't decided yet, though thanks for reminding me.**

 **With that done, I'll see you in the next update!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Unknown entity328 has arrived with a new chapter! I hope you all are having a wonderful day and are having beautiful weather outside your homes. Before I leave you alone to read in peace, I would like to say that on February 1st I will be holding a contest. What kind of contest it will be will remain my little secret until the time I announce it. Now that that's out of the way, to the chapter!**

* * *

Chapter Four: Life or Death?

Toya sidestepped away from a downward swing from his opponent who was twice his size and countered with a right swing to the side which connected and caused to fall to the side dropping his practice sword. His opponent tried to push himself up, but Toya held the tip of his practice sword inches from his opponent's face.

"Match, Toya!" The instructor called and Toya tried to catch his breath as someone handed him a towel and when he turned he saw it was Sakuya smiling at him. Toya gave him a grateful smile and took the towel to wipe off the sweat as they walked to sit down as the next two students got up and walked to the center of the room facing each other holding their wooden swords at the ready.

"Your getting better at zanjustu, Toya." Sakuya said as Toya continued to wipe off the sweat on his face. "When we started classes six months ago, you were barely able to beat your opponents."

"I have Renji to thank for the progress I made." Toya said putting the towel down and smiled. "He helped me get better by brutally sparing with me."

Sakuya laughed at that. "That's rough, but hey at least its showing results."

"That's for sure." Toya nodded putting down the towel and watch the other students spar. "Izuru even joined us a few times."

"Maybe I should join you guys if you made this much progress." Sakuya mused holding his chin between his thumb and index finger in thought.

"I can ask Renji if you want." Toya offered seeing that Sakuya was giving it a serious thought.

"Hmm... nah." Sakuya waved a dismissive hand smirking at Toya. "I don't think I want to be black and blue if how you are after your sparing sessions is any indication." It was then he had a thought and looked to Toya. "By the way, what squad are you hoping to be assigned to when we graduate?"

"That came out of nowhere." Toya commented looking at his friend with a raised eyebrow in question. "What brought this up?"

"I was just thinking about that captain that came here six months ago." Sakuya replied and Toya nodded in understanding as he thought back to the captain that visited the academy and wondered the same thing as Sakuya. "I was just thinking that if we join the thirteen court guard squads, which one should I join and what the captain would be like." Then he turned his head to face Toya. "What would your first choice be?"

Toya looked down in thought before shrugging. "I don't know, I thought about it, but it's hard to pick one from the other." Then he gave Sakuya a grin. "It's still early for us to talk about this, so let's just enjoy our time in the academy and worry about it when graduation is around the corner. Sound like a plan to you?" Sakuya grinned back and nodded when they heard a shout of pain and turned to the students having a sparring match and saw that one of them holding their left arm like it was broken.

"I'm so sorry!" His opponent said running to him with the instructor. "Are you alright?!"

"It looks like it's broken." The instructor said as he checked the arm. "We need to get him to the infirmary."

Sakuya cringed when he saw the severity of the arm. "I guess even though we're using wooden swords it's still possible to get hurt, huh Toya?" Toya just stood up and started to walk over to the crowd while Sakuya looked to his friend in confusion. "Toya?"

"Excuse me." Toya said getting everyone's attention as he walked over to his injured classmate before getting on one knee holding out a hand. "May I?" The male student painfully lifted up his injured arm and Toya gently held it with his left hand hovering his right hand over it palm facing down. Toya closed his eyes and took a deep breath as his hand started to glow green. Everyone's eyes widened at what they were seeing as the bruise on the arm started to fade. After the bruise was completely gone, the glow faded away as Toya opened his eyes and lowered his arms. "How does it feel now?"

The student used his right hand to touch where the injury was but was surprised when he felt no pain. "It doesn't hurt." He gave a grateful smile to Toya. "Thanks."

"It was no problem." Toya smiled back and got up to sit next to Sakuya again not noticing the stares he was getting.

"Where did you learn healing kido Toya?" Sakuya asked after getting over his surprise. "I don't think we were going to learn that yet."

"I taught myself." Toya replied as the other students went back to sparing. "I stumbled upon it while I was studying in the library and thought it would come in handy on the field."

"So that's what you were doing after practice." Toya and Sakuya looked to where the voice came from and saw Renji and Izuru walking towards them. "I thought it was weird your bruises would disappear after our sparing sessions." He sat next to Toya crossing his arms. "How long have you been learning it?"

Toya thought about it for a moment. "I think about a month?"

"A month?" Izuru asked in surprise looking to the student that had his arm healed. "And you were able to heal a broken arm?"

"I just employed what we learned in kido class." Toya said modestly rubbing the back of his head. "It wasn't that hard." He then gave Renji a side glance as he picked up the towel he was using earlier and looped it around his neck. "Plus I had plenty of practice thanks to you-know-who."

"Yeah, that makes sense." Sakuya said crossing his arms nodding in understanding. "When it comes to Renji, a skill like that is mandatory."

Izuru let out an amused chuckled when Renji glared at Sakuya who hide behind Toya using the white haired boy as a shield. "Toya does come out of our spars covered in bruises because Renji doesn't hold back."

"Anyway." Said an irritated Renji as the instructor called the end of zanjutsu class and the four friends left the training hall. "Did you know that there have been rumors going around about you, Toya?"

"Rumors?" Toya repeated giving Renji a confused look as they walked down the halls to their next class. "What rumors?"

"You don't know?" Sakuya laughed at his friend's confusion. "You've become the talk of the campus since we started attending the academy. The instructors are even calling you a prodigy."

"A prodigy, me?" Toya blinked in surprise pointing to himself and when Sakuya nodded Toya waved his hand dismissively laughing nervously. "I'm no prodigy, I was just lucky."

"That's not what everyone else is saying." Sakuya said with a sly smirk holding up a finger. "Your scores are the second highest in our class right under Izuru, you're an expert in kido, you top everyone in hakuda, your hoho is faster than everyone else's, and earlier you defeated an opponent that's twice your size without taking a single hit in zanjutsu."

"All because of Renji's brutal training." Toya countered as they entered the classroom and took their seats. "And the only reason I have good scores is because Rukia helps me study."

"Speaking of which, how is Rukia?" Izuru asked curiously.

"Still sour she's not in the advanced class." Toya replied chuckling. "Other than that, she's seems to be doing alright."

"She's still upset about that?" Renji asked in exasperation. "Rukia really needs to let go of the fact she isn't in the advanced class."

"It's kinda surprising _you're_ in the advanced class Mr. Suicide Bomber." Sakuta teased resulting in him getting trapped in a headlock by an irate Renji.

"Stop calling me that!" Renji shouted at the laughing Sakuya tightening his hold on the green haired teen. "Just because I nearly blew up the whole class a few times doesn't make me a suicide bomber!"

"To be fair, your kido does tend to blow up a lot Renji." Toya pointed out with a hand over his mouth trying to reign in a laugh desperately fighting to come out. "I mean, how do you make even a binding spell explode?"

"That's a good point." Izuru added looking to Renji and Sakuya who was tapping Renji's arm when he tighten his hold on the green haired teen. Izuru and Toya sweat dropped when they noticed Sakuya stopped fighting to get out of Renji's grip and his face was pale. "Um, I think you should let him go now Renji. I don't think Sakuya can breath."

"Huh?" Renji looked to Izuru and Toya then to Sakuya whose eyes were rolled back and immediately released his hold on him. "Sorry!"

"I hate to say 'I told you so' Renji, but." Toya sighed as he eased the unconscious Sakuya into a sitting position. "I thought I dealt with that temper of yours back in the rukon district."

"It seems you still have a ways to go Toya." Izuru chuckled as Gengoro walked in stopping in the middle and turned to face the class.

"Students, I have a special announcement." Gengoro started getting the class' attention. "You of the advanced class has been selected to take part in practice fights against dummy Hollows in the World of the Living." After hearing that the classroom was filled with excited murmurs from the students as Gengoro pushed his glasses up when they slid down. "You are all to prepare your Asauchi and a boxed lunch then meet with the sixth years that will act as your guides while you are there."

* * *

"I can't believe we get to go to the World of the Living!" Sakuya shouted excitedly adjusting his Asauchi on his shoulder in it's cover as he walked down the hall with Toya, Renji, and Izuru. "What do you guys think it'll be like?"

"We'll find out when we get there." Renji said having a thoughtful look. "I wonder if we'll be put in teams."

"Most likely." Izuru mused before looking to Toya. "Are you ready for this Toya?"

"Ready as I'll ever be." Toya replied letting out a nervous laugh before he saw Rukia across the hall looking out a window with a far off look on her face. "Hey, isn't that Rukia over there?"

Renji followed where Toya was looking and saw her before walking over and kicked her in the behind causing her to give a surprise screamed before holding her behind and turned her head to glare at Renji with tears in her eyes.

"Hey, what was that for?!" Rukia yelled and Renji just gave her a half-lidded look.

"All this daydreaming is a waste of time." Renji said with a bland tone of voice. "You've been here for six months and you still haven't started taken your training seriously."

"Oh yeah, well who are you to-" Rukia stopped mid-shout when she noticed that Renji was holding a wrapped lunch in his left hand and his Asauchi on his back in its cover along with Izuru, Toya, and Sakuya standing behind him. "You look like you're going someplace, are you guys having field training or something today?"

"Yeah." Renji replied grinning. "We're going to the world of the living for a practice fight against dummy hollows."

"Huh?" Rukia looked surprised at that before an angry look came across her face. "Why you?! Why is it only your class?!" She then started to flail a finger at Renji who just stood there with his hands on his hips. "Not to mention you shouldn't be in the advanced class in the first place!"

"What can I say?" Renji asked rhetorically with his hands on his hips as he watched his friend rant. "They recognized talent when they see it."

"He calls blowing himself up talent?" Toya whispered in Sakuya's ear which got a snicker in response.

"And just you wait." Renji continued as the turned and started to leave. "I'm better than you already, and when I come back there won't even be any comparison between us."

"Yeah?! Well, when you come back I'm gonna be a-" Rukia started to yell before it got lower as she had an uncertain look on her face. "Oh, I don't know."

"Relax Rukia." Toya said giving his friend a reassuring smile. "You and Renji have different ways of getting better." He patted Rukia on the shoulder. "Keep doing what you're doing and you'll eventually surpass Renji one way or another, kido for example." Rukia gave a small laugh at that as Toya walked away giving her a backhanded wave. "And don't worry about Renji, I'll make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

Outside stood the entire advanced class and in front of them was two boys and one girl standing in front of a shoji door. The boy in the middle had black hair and a 69 tattoo on his left cheek. To his right is a tall man with short black hair and a long thin face with small eyes. To his left is a short girl with relatively short brown hair. Part of it is tied up at the right side of her head with a hair clip consisting of two red pearls.

"First, allow us to introduce ourselves." The boy in the middle started. "I'm Shuhei Hisagi, 6th year."

"I'm Kanisawa." The brown haired girl introduced bowing her head slightly in greeting.

"I'm Aoga." The tall man introduced raising a hand in greeting.

"The three of us will be your guides for this exercise." Shuhei said getting murmurs from the class.

"What's up?" Renji asked looking at his fellow classmates in confusion. "Why are they all gawking, are they famous or something?"

"How do you not know?" Izuru questioned turning to Renji before turning back to the front. "The one in the middle, everybody knows who he is. Shuhei Hisagi, they say he's been assigned to a post in the thirteen court guard squads even before he graduates. That almost never happens, he's even suppose to be in line to become a ranked officer."

"Heh, no kidding." Renji said in an uninterested tone in his voice.

"That's impressive." Toya muttered listening in to what Izuru was saying.

"Strangely enough, he also failed the academy's entrance exam two times." Izuru said resting his chin between his thumb and index finger with a smug smirk. "And given that my exam score was the highest in our class, I might be better than him."

"Oh?" Renji questioned in a bored tone in his voice not interested in what Izuru said.

"Arrogant much?" Toya asked rhetorically shaking his head in amusement. "Keep in mind that he's a sixth year so he has more experience than you Izuru."

"Now listen up." Kanisawa said taking over the explanation. "We'll split up into groups of three and get ready to go. Everyone, take out the lots you drew when we first assembled and then find the two students who have the same mark you have." Everyone pulled out a piece of paper and started looking for their group members.

"Ah, so that's what these little pieces of paper are for." Renji said looking at his paper before looking at Toya's. "Looks like your with a different group Toya."

"Looks like it." Toya nodded and looked at Sakuya's paper and saw the mark on his matches the one on his paper. "Look like we're in the same group Sakuya."

"Yeah." Sakuya nodded before looking around the other students. "I wonder who's in our group."

"You and I are together Renji, but." Izuru started looking around. "Who's our third?"

"Excuse me." The pigtailed girl from kido class said from behind Renji and Izuru. "I'm your third."

"Oh, it's you." Renji said as he and Izuru turned to face her. "Hello Momo."

"Welcome aboard." Izuru said with a smile.

"Glad to see those two found their third." Toya said as he and Sakuya looked around to see most of the class have found group already. "Now what about us?"

"That would be me." Toya and Sakuya turned to the voice to see a boy with short brown hair and brown eyes smiling at them. "I'm Mahiru Kanzaki, nice to meet you."

"Same here." Toya nodded in greeting giving a friendly smile.

"Looking forward to getting to know you." Sakuya said with a thumbs up smiling.

After everyone found their groups they turned to the three sixth years.

"Alright, now that everyone's found their groups we'll brief you on today's exercise." Shuhei said looking to Kanisawa and nodded.

"An advanced party of sixth year students has already entered the world of the living and constructed a temporary barrier." Kanisawa explained picking up where he left off.

"Once inside that perimeter, each group will engage in practice combat with dummy hollows." Aoga said continuing the explanation.

"The sixth year students are here only to create a combat ready environment for you." Shuhei said finishing up the explanation. "They will not assist in the combat itself, are we clear?" He didn't wait for a response as he turned to the shoji doors. "Then let's go."

"Yes sir!" The students said at once as the doors opened showing a bright white pathway and everyone started walking through.

* * *

Toya ran on top of the buildings of a shipyard as a four legged mechanical creature robotically ran from him. Toya jumped towards the dummy hollow and prepared a downward swing with his Asauchi. The dummy Hollow dodged the blow and ran from Toya who chased after it as it made a quick left turn. "Sakuya, it's headed your way!"

"I got it!" Sakuya came out of the corner and did a side swing aiming for the head but the dummy hollow jumped to the top of a building. "Sorry Mahiru, it got away!"

"Don't worry, I'll get it!" Mahiru jumped in front of the dummy hollow and sliced its front legs off before bringing down his Asauchi on the dummy Hollow cutting it down the middle causing it to explode.

"Alright!" Sakuya shouted raising a fist to the air. "Now that's how you do it!"

"That was a nice shot Mahiru." Toya complimented as he walked over to them.

"Thank, but it was nothing." Mahiru laughed sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. "Well, we better get back." The other two nodded and made their way to the rendezvous point.

"Welcome back." Shuhei said seeing the three walking over. "How did it go?"

"We got it." Satoshi replied and Shuhei nodded.

"I think everyone has returned safely." Aoga said with his hands on his hips.

"So the exercise was a success." Kanisawa said as Shuhei contacted the barrier unit.

"This is Hisagi at the rendezvous point. Barrier unit, what is the situation there?" He didn't get a response. 'Barrier unit, acknowledge." Still no response. "Barrier unit, can you hear me? Report in at once! Barrier unit report!"

"What could have happened?" Kanisawa questioned.

"I don't know." Shuhei replied. "It certainly is strange for them not to answer."

Satoshi suddenly felt a chill go down his spine unconsciously shivering as he looked around their area to see that Renji, Izuru, and Momo weren't with them.

"You okay Toya?" Mahiru asked catching his new friend shivering.

"I don't know." Toya replied holding himself to stop his quivering body. "I have a really bad feeling about this."

"Oh no!" Kanisawa's voice caught everyone's attention and looked where she was facing to see a giant monster with a green body and a mask with long horns. It had a single claw for hands and screamed before being pierced in the chest. It tossed her to where Toya was standing causing him to fall back when she hit him.

"Oww." Toya groaned sitting up rubbing the back of his head where he felt a bump and looked down to his lap where he saw Kanisawa with a hole in her chest and her blood staining his uniform. The moment he saw the hole in Kanisawa's chest and the blood that made his uniform stick to his skin, Toya started to take shaky breathes as he processed what was going on before he started to scream in horror.

"You bastard, you killed her!" Aoga jumped to the hollow.

"Aoga, no!" Shuhei called out but was too late as Aoga was stabbed by the Hollow's claw. "Aoga!" Shuhei then turned to the freshmen. "Freshmen get out of here, run as far as you can!" The freshmen then started to scream as they ran away.

"Toya, come on!" Sakuya yelled as he tried to pulled Toya by the arm away from Kanisawa's body. That was when he felt it, the faint thump of Kanisawa's heart still beating.

"Wait!" Toya jerked his arm free from Sakuya's grasped and placed both his shaking hands over the hole in Kanisawa's chest and they started glowing green. "She's still alive!"

"We have to get out of here!" Mahiru shouted looking to the dead body of Aoga then to Shuhei who was fending off the giant Hollow. "You saw what that thing did to two sixth year students!"

"Mahiru's right, Toya!" Sakuya added fearfully looking to the giant Hollow fighting Shuhei then back to Toya who continued the healing kido. "Even if you did heal Kanisawa, we wouldn't be able to carry her and get out of danger alive!"

"So you expect me to just leave her here to die?!" Toya shouted back shocking them as he continued to try and seal the wound, his hands still shaking from being covered with her blood. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm not gonna abandon a comrade that needs help!" Toya's risked a glance to the Hollow Shuhei was fighting before going back to Kanisawa his eyes narrowed in concentration. "You guys go on ahead, I'll catch up as soon as I can." The only sounds that could be heard was the sounds of students screaming as they ran and Shuhei fighting the Hollow. Toya had sweat flowing down his face and breathing heavily as he poured more of his spirit energy into the healing kido. ' _Please, let me have enough to save her!_ '

"Good grief." Sakuya rubbed the back of his head before he unsheathed his Asauchi and turned his back to Toya who looked up to Sakuya in surprise holding his Asauchi in both hands. "When you put it like that I guess I can't just up and leave, now can I?"

"Sakuya." Toya muttered as Mahiru stood next to Sakuya and unsheathed his Asauchi as well. "Mahiru?"

"You focus on healing Kanisawa, we'll take care of any hollows that come this way." Mahiru said turning to smile at Toya. "That's what friends are for, right?"

Toya smiled and nodded before going back to sealing Kanisawa's wound as three smaller Hollow's appeared out of black voids.

"You three!" Shuhei shouted when he spotted them. "Take Kanisawa and get somewhere safe!"

"We will when Toya is able to stabilize her, sir!" Sakuya said as he saw the smaller hollows coming their way and slashed one in half purifying it.

"We can handle the smaller hollows." Mahiru said as he slashed the second hollow that got too close and blocked a blow from the third. "You handle the big one sir!"

"Alright." Shuhei nodded and turned his attention back to the big hollow in from of him.

"Come on, come on." Toya muttered to himself as the wound in Kanisawa's chest slowly got smaller and smaller. "Don't die on us." The wound finally closed as the green glow from Toya's hands faded and his breathing was heavy looking up to Sakuya and Mahiru. "She's stable now!"

"Alright!" Sakuya and Mahiru sheathed their swords and knelt down to place an arm over their shoulders and half carried half dragged her away from the giant hollow. Sakuya turned to Toya who was lagging behind still breathing hard with a worried look in his eyes. "You okay, Toya?"

"Don't worry about me, I'm fine." Toya said as he picked up the pace looking at his hands with a contemplative look on his face ignoring the blood that covered them. ' _Healing Kanisawa's wound took a lot more spirit energy out of me than I thought it would._ '

They were halfway to where the other students were when a huge Hollow with centipede body wearing a white mask with green markings on it appeared in front of them.

"Not good." Mahiru mumbled eyes wide with fear. "Why now of all times?"

"This is it." Sakuya's entire body quivered in fear when the Hollow opened it's mouth and let out a howl. "We're going to die."

" **Shakkahou!** " A red ball struck the hollow in the face but it didn't even flinched. Sakuya and Mahiru turn to look behind them to see Toya with both his hands up breathing hard. "Get out of here guys!" Toya formed another Shakkahou between his hands and aimed it at the Hollow. "I'll buy you some time!"

"Are you crazy?!" Sakuya shouted at his friend. "You're gonna get yourself killed!"

"You look like you could barely keep yourself up let alone buy us time!" Sakuya added as he and Sakuya laid Kanisawa down and formed their own Shakkahou. "We're not gonna let you face this thing alone!"

"You guys…" Toya whispered before focusing on the Hollow again. "Alright, together now!" They nodded as Toya started to chant. "Ruler, mask of flesh and blood, everything in the universe fly."

"That which names all in nature, gathering of heat and war." Sakuya continued.

"Beyond the seas in reverse, take steps to the south." Mahiru finished.

" **Hado #31: Shakkahou!** " All three shouted as the attacks fired and hit the Hollow in the head at the same time causing an explosion leaving behind a curtain of smoke.

"Did we get it?" Mahiru asked when nothing came out of the smoke cloud.

"I think we did." Sakuya said the two broke out in big smiles before cheering and five-fiving each other. Toya didn't think it would be that easy as he thought of his previous encounter with a Hollow and he was right when he saw a pair of glowing yellow eyes in the smoke cloud.

"Watch out!" Toya yelled getting their attention only for them to be knocked away by one of the hollow's legs hitting them into one of the buildings in the area knocking down the wall and knocking them out. "Sakuya, Mahiru!" The smoke cleared to show the Hollow was unscathed leaving Toya to shake in fear and despair. "No way, it took three shakkahou attacks to the head and there's not even a scratch." Toya fell to his knees with wide eyes as the Hollow neared his friends and Kanisawa. "What do I do?"

" _ **Do you wish to save them?**_ " A deep voice asked and Toya suddenly found himself in a place filled black storm clouds covering the sky. Toya looked around then down to his feet and saw he was standing on a storm cloud. Toya heard a roar and looks up as an electric blue serpent-like dragon with sapphire eyes, a pair of wings on its back, three fingered claws, and scales that spark with electricity.

"Who are you?" Toya asked staring up at the dragon in front of him in awe.

" _ **My name is-**_ " The dragon said but Toya can barely hear him as thunder started to sound drowning out the dragon's name as lightning struck down from the storm clouds above them.

"I can't hear you!" Toya shouted over the sound of thunder. "Who are you?!"

" _ **My name is-**_ " Again Toya could barely hear the dragon as the sound of thunder got louder to the point that Toya had to cover his ears. The dragon noticed Toya covering his ears from the sound of the thunder and let out a disappointed growl. " _ **It appears you are not yet ready to learn my name.**_ " The dragon spread it's wings creating powerful gusts of wind forcing Toya to close his eyes and let out a powerful roar as the clouds above released dragon's made of lightning that circle around them. " _ **Show me, show me that you are worthy of being my master!**_ "

Toya opened his eyes to see that he was back in the shipyard. ' _What was that?_ ' The sound of howling got his attention and looked to the source to see the centipede Hollow raising one of it's many legs preparing to swing it down on the unconscious Sakuya and Mahiru. "Sakuya! Mahiru!" Toya quickly got to his feet unsheathing his Asauchi and jumped in front of the Hollow as it brought it's leg down and Toya blocked it. Toya gritted his teeth from the weight of the Hollow's attack digging his heels when he was pushed back. ' _So_ _strong._ ' Toya looked back to his unconscious friends behind him then back to the Hollow with renewed determination. ' _But I can't back down!_ ' Toya forced the Hollow back and jumped up to engage it in battle.

* * *

 **I decided to be nice and give you readers a little hint on Toya's Zanpakuto, I was originally planning not to, but I figured that a little hint wouldn't hurt. Now for the reviews that you took the time to put in for me to read and tell me your honest opinions of this fanfic.**

 **Karsap: Yup, he got his zanpakuto. Tee-hee, I'm afraid my lips are sealed on that until the grand reveal.**

 **Shadow knight1121: Perhaps the hint I gave you will help you picture what it will be. I hope this chapter was worth the wait and I look forward to hearing from you again.**

 **With that being said, till we meet again my readers.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Time for chapter five of "A Shinigami's Journey" XD! I am so sorry it took so long to update this one my readers, but you can't rush things like this as it takes time to be satisfied with what you have written. I had to go through many different ideas to see which ones would go together and many of them i had no choice but to throw in something I like to call "The Bad Idea Graveyard". Anyway, enough of my rambling, on with the chapter you waited patiently for!**

* * *

Chapter Five: My Name Is

Toya brought up his asauchi before bringing it down on the Huge Hollow to split it's mask in two but it brought a leg up and block the strike while bringing another leg up to pierce Toya who was struggling to keep the first leg at bay. Seeing this, Toya used all his strength to push the leg back before jumping back to put some distance between him and the centipede Hollow as the second leg pierced into the ground sending pieces of concrete flying. Toya tried his best to avoid the flying debris but was not expecting the centipede Hollow to have a leg among them and it slammed him into a building in the shipyard letting out a pained yell as air was forced out of his lungs before falling to the ground.

" **Pathetic.** " The centipede Hollow said laughing maniacally as Toya struggled to get back to his feet. " **Is that really all that you can do? You're so weak that it's pitiful.** " It's eyes glowed for a moment before it's legs seemed to glimmer under the light of the moon. " **But I like it that way, nothing gets my blood pumping more than tormenting a pathetic weakling to an inch of their life before putting them out of their misery.** "

"So you get some sick joy out of other people's suffering?" Toya questioned softly getting to his feet swaying side to side to keep his balance.

" **Of course.** " The Hollow replied with a gleeful look in it's eyes. " **Just imagining the sound of pain filled screams and begging to be spared sends so many shivers down my spine.** " It snickered bringing a leg up as the tip glinted from the light of the moon. " **And let's not forget the expressions on their faces that goes from strong and determined to despair and agony in a matter of seconds as they begin to lose hope.** "

"You make me sick." Toya growled out through gritted teeth holding his asauchi with both hands as his body gets enveloped in an electric blue aura as he glared at the Huge Hollow. "You were once human too right? So how can you enjoy killing others like it's some sort of game?"

" **Now that's an easy question.** " The Hollow brought down it's leg towards Toya who blocked it with his asauchi. " **Because it's exhilarating! And the metallic taste of blood on my tongue is like a drug you can't help but get addicted to!** " It continued to use it's many leg to launch an assault on Toya who could only block and dodge as the Huge Hollow was leaving no openings. However, due to his exhausted state, Toya couldn't dodge or block all of the centipede Hollows attacks leaving terrible gashes across his arms, legs, and chest. " **Watching humans suffer is the only kind of entertainment for me and there's nothing you can do about it weakling!** "

It was at that moment that Sakuya and Mahiru regained consciousness to see Toya trading blows with the centipede Hollow that knocked them out. The Hollow howled continued to swing it's many legs like sickles towards Toya who parried and evaded them until he jumped up and slashed one off making the Hollow to howl in pain looking at it's amputated limb before it swung another leg at Toya's abdomen sending him to crash flat on his back in front of Sakuya and Mahiru coughing up blood.

"Toya!" Sakuya and Mahiru shouted getting to their feet as the Hollow raised it's leg again and brought it down to crush the academy students. Sakuya and Mahiru each quickly placed one of Toya's arms over their shoulders and jumped out of the way causing the attack to hit the building they were in instead making the ceiling collapse on it.

"Thanks guys." Toya said giving his friends a grateful smile removing his arms from their shoulders. "Are you you two alright?"

"We are thanks to you, Toya." Mahiru said holding his right arm that was dripping blood to the ground from his fingertips. "We'd be Hollow food right now if you didn't protect us."

"Are _you_ alright, though?" Sakuya asked casting a worried glance to Toya who was breathing heavily and his legs were shaking on the verge of giving in to his own weight covered in deep gashes and bruises on his arms, legs, and chest with his uniform having tears along the sleeves, chest, and hakama which were all stained with the white haired student's blood. ' _It must have taken everything he had just to protect us from that Hollow. Not only that._ ' He risked a glance to Kanisawa who was still unconscious. ' _He's still exhausted from when he used most of his spirit energy to heal Kanisawa and forming two Shakkahou attacks, it's a miracle he's even still standing._ '

"I'll be fine." Toya said tightening his grip on his Asauchi as the Hollow got itself out of the rubble and glared at the three academy students before letting out a howl. Toya gave Sakuya and Mahiru side glances inspecting their injuries as he contemplated what they should do. His grip on his asauchi started to slacken as he slowly lost feeling in his arms from the blood loss and gritted his teeth knowing he can't fight in this condition. "We should run, we don't stand a chance against this thing with our injuries."

" **Don't think you'll escape weaklings!** " The centipede Hollow shouted before letting out a howl as more Huge Hollows began to come out of black voids surrounding them.

"Then there's no choice." Mahriu muttered releasing his grip on his injured arm to unsheath his asauchi and gripping it with both hands ignoring the stabbing pain that shot up his right arm. "We have to fight, there's no way I'm dying in a place like this."

"Took the words right out of my mouth Mahiru." Toya nodded in agreement before blocking another strike from the centipede Hollow and his eyes widened in shock when he was forced to a knee from the weight of the attack. ' _Did it's attack get stronger?!_ ' He gritted his teeth as he tried to push the attack back only for his grip on his asauchi give in and he dropped it as the Hollow brought it's leg up again and brought it down to finish the white haired student off.

"Toya!" Mahiru got in front of Toya and slashed the Hollow's leg off causing it to howl in pain before turning to knell in front of Toya placing a hand on his shoulder. "Don't push yourself, you're exhausted from healing Kanisawa and trying to protect us."

"Leave the rest to us." Sakuya added unsheathing his asauchi cutting off the tongue of a frog-like Hollow that tried to strike when Mahiru's back was turned. "You've done enough already, take Kanisawa and get out of here."

"I'm not leaving you guys here." Toya struggled to get to his feet again picking up his asauchi and standing between Sakuya and Mahiru. "I told you, I will never abandon my comrades."

" **Now isn't that touching.** " The centipede Hollow said sarcastically. " **If that's how you feel then you can join your ' _comrades_ ' as they die in painful agony!**"

Suddenly, a soul reaper wearing a badge which had the kanji for thirteen and a snowdrop flower below it on his left arm jumped in front of the academy students. "I see you took my suggestion and became a student." The soul reaper looked back to the students and Toya was surprised to see it was Kaien Shiba. "And it looks like you have Hollows after you again."

"Kaien Shiba?!" Toya shouted eyes wide in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"Your guide called the Soul Society requesting for reinforcements." Toya and his friends turned to the new voice to see a tall man with a somewhat emaciated appearance walking towards them. He has long white hair, brown eyes, and a black shihakusho under a white haori that has the kanji for thirteen on the back. "We came here to answer that call with another pair."

"It's captain Ukitake." Mahiru muttered under his breath as the captain walked past the academy students to stand beside his lieutenant.

"Captain Aizen should be helping your classmates as we speak." Kaien said unsheathing his Zanpakuto as the Hollows began get closer to them. "Though I think sending two captains and lieutenants is a bit much to just handle a few Hollows."

"It can't be helped, Kaien." Ukitake said unsheathing his own Zanpakuto. "The head captain wanted us to go in case there were stragglers." He looked back to Toya and his friends with his eyes lingering on Toya. "And it seems we barely made it in time, that one looks like he's on the verge of collapsing."

Kaien looked to Toya inspecting his injuries and frowned when he noticed the white haired student looked ready to pass out from exhaustion. "You're right captain, and his spirit energy is lower than it was when I met him."

"So he's the one you told me about." Ukitake looked to Toya who stiffened when he realized the white haired man was looking at him. "Were you trying to protect your friends young man?" Toya could only nod his head in response to the captain's question and Ukitake nodded back giving Toya a friendly smile which caught him off guard. "You fought well, now rest while we handle the Hollows."

"Uh, yes sir." Toya snapped out of his stunned state and sheathed his asauchi before limping over to Kanisawa placing an arm over his shoulder and looked to Sakuya and Mahiru. "Guys, help me with Kanisawa!" Toya's voice seemed to snap his friends out of their shock as they ran over to help their injured friend carry Kanisawa a safe distance away.

"You don't need to fight captain." Kaien said standing in front of his captain. "You're still not well enough to be moving."

"I'll be fine, Kaien." Ukitake chuckled as the Hollows howled. "Just focus on the task at hand."

"Right." Kaien nodded as he held his Zanpakuto out to the side with the tip of the blade pointing down. "Rankle the Seas and Heavens, **Nejibana** **!** " Kaien began to twirl it as it gained a yellow glow growing in length transforming into a cross between a trident, a bishamon-yari, and a ji with a crystalline appearance. Like the ji, it bears a horsehair tassel, although it is blue instead of the traditional red; similarly the two side blades are straight with concave edges as opposed to the usual crescent blades of the bishamon yari. The end of trident turned into a drill shape. Kaien continued to twirl the trident as water began to flow out from both ends before the Hollows howled and began to attack the lieutenant. Kaien swung his downward as water crashed onto the Hollows with enough power to force them to the ground before thrusting his trident piercing through their masks purifying them.

A Hollow that escaped Kaien's attack howled before it charged towards the academy students with its mouth open to devour them. Ukitake blurred out of sight and reappeared in front of the academy students and brought his Zanpakuto up blocking the attack as the Hollow bit onto the blade. "I'm afraid I cannot allow you to eat these students." Ukitake pushed the Hollow back and slashed its mask purifying it before sheathing his Zanpakuto and turned to the academy students. "You're safe now."

"Thank you saving us captain Ukitake." Mahiru said gratefully giving the white haired man a respectful bow.

"I'm just glad we made it in time." Ukitake said walking over to them. "I must commend you for trying to take on so many Hollows by yourselves when you three are only freshmen."

"Toya deserves most of the credit." Sakuya said looking to the white haired student smiling. "Despite everything that happened, Toya stayed to save Kanisawa." He then looked to Mahiru. "And even though he exhausted most of his spirit energy to heal her, he still fought a Hollow he knew was too strong for him to protect us."

"I see." Ukitake nodded before looking to Toya placing a hand on his shoulder being careful his injuries and smiled. "You've been through a lot today, it was very brave of you to protect your friends despite the condition you're in."

"To be honest, I was really scared, sir." Toya admitted bringing up a shaking hand staring at Kanisawa's blood that still stained it. "I was so scared that I would die and wanted to run for my life." He looked to Mahiru and Sakuya then to where they laid Kanisawa before facing Ukitake again. "But I wouldn't have forgiven myself if I just left them to die."

Ukitake nodded in understanding. "That is admirable, being able to admit that you were scared takes the greatest amount of courage." He removed his hand from Toya's shoulder as the white haired student processed the captain's words. "Never forget that you are not alone when you go into battle." Ukitake nodded to Sakuya and Mahiru and Toya looked to his friends. "You will have your comrades by your side, so there will be no need to be afraid for they will have your back." Toya looked back to Ukitake to see that the white haired captain was smiling down to him. "I can see that you will be a wonderful soul reaper one day and would be lucky to have you as one of my subordinates." Ukitake's words shocked Toya but before he could say anything in response his vision began to blur before he slowly began to fall and his consciousness faded to black.

* * *

When Toya regained consciousness, he slowly opened his eyes to see a white ceiling and tried to sit up before a pair of hands lightly pushed him back down. He turned his head to the owner of the hands and was surprised to see it was Kanisawa. "Kanisawa?"

"The doctor said you need to stay down." Kanisawa said as she took a seat in a side that was on the side of the bed Toya was lying on.

"Are you feeling alright?" Toya asked noticing some bandages showing from under her uniform.

Kanisawa nodded. "When I regained consciousness I was told you were the one who saved my life." She then gave Toya a grateful smile. "I wanted to thank you for that."

"It was nothing, I'm just glad I was able to help." Toya gave a small smile in return then remembered something that made his smile into a sad frown. "I'm sorry about Aoga, though."

"Don't worry about it, it wasn't your fault." Kanisawa got up from the chair she was sitting on. "He was dead the moment the hollow attacked, I was just lucky it missed my heart." Kanisawa then began to leave stopping at the door looking back to Toya. "Again, thank you." With that being said Kanisawa left the infirmary leaving Toya to his thoughts.

"Why did those Hollows show up?" Toya muttered under his breath rolling to his side only to hiss in pain and rolled to his back again staying still until the pain subsided. "Okay, that hurts."

"Toya!" Toya turned to the door to see Renji, Rukia, Sakuya, and Mahiru at the door with relieved smiles on their faces. Toya slowly got to a seating position being careful of his injuries as they came over to him.

"Hey guys." Toya greeted with a smile only to get a punch to the top of the head from Rukia. Toya gave a painful yell holding his head before looking up at Rukia with tears in his eyes. "Gah, what was that for?!"

"That was for being an idiot." Rukia said holding up her fist before resting both her hands on her hips and looked at Toya with furrowed eyebrows. "What were you thinking fighting Hollows when you're just a freshmen like us?!"

"Rukia's right." Renji said in agreement glaring at his white haired friend making the bedridden student uncomfortable. "When I saw you unconscious on a stretcher when we came back you had me worried!"

Toya had the decency to looked down in shame for worrying his friends. "Sorry guys, I just didn't want to see my friends die in front of me."

Sakuya and Mahiru looked at each other at that. It's true that they were unconscious for most of the fight, but if Toya didn't do what he did then they would be dead right now.

"He was only trying to protect us." Sakuya said getting Rukia and Renji's attention. "If he didn't do what he did me, Mahiru, and Kanisawa would be dead right now." Mahiru nodded in agreement. Rukia and Renji looked at each other then to Toya who was rubbing his head where Rukia hit him muttering under his breath about not hitting a patient.

"Just promise us you won't do anything crazy like that again, alright?" Rukia finally said sighing shaking her head in exasperation.

"I promise." Toya said before letting out a chuckle. "I guess I was the one who did something stupid." That got a laugh out of his friends when he had a sudden thought and cast a worried looked to Sakuya and Mahiru. "Are you guys alright?"

"We're fine." Mahiru replied holding up his bandaged arm. "I was lucky only getting this and a few scrapes."

"Same here." Sakuya added lightly placing his right hand over his left shoulder. "You're a lifesaver Toya." He then grinned taking a seat at the edge of Toya's bed and gently nudged him with his elbow. "You even got praised by a captain of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads."

"Toya got praised by a captain?!" Renji and Rukia shouted in shock looking at their friend who blushed in embarrassment when all attention was on him.

Mahiru chuckled at the white haired student's predicament. "Yeah, he said Toya would be a wonderful soul reaper one day and would be lucky to have him as his subordinate."

After hearing the full story they bid Toya farewell leaving the infirmary for him to rest. Toya laid back into his bed staring at the white ceiling of the infirmary thinking back to what everyone in the advanced class will soon call "The Hollow incident" and his encounter with the giant dragon. ' _What was that dragon, and what did it mean to show that I'm worthy of being it's master?_ ' He raised his arm to stare at the palm of his hand in contemplation. ' _And why did I run out of spirit energy so fast when I was healing Kanisawa?_ ' Toya sighed when nothing he thought of answered his questions and lowered his arm closing his eyes to at least try to get some rest.

The next day found Toya sitting on an examination table as the infirmary doctor began removing his bandages to inspect his wounds before bringing out a clean roll of bandages. "Alright, it seems your wounds have avoided being infected." She wrapped Toya's wounds with the bandages much to the white haired student's discomfort. "They're still seriously deep and might leave a few scars, though." After she finished bandaging Toya's wounds she took the used bandages and set them aside to clean later. "You're lucky to even be alive with wounds as severe as those."

"Are they really that bad?" Toya asked looking at his bandaged chest and arms.

"They are." The doctor nodded turning to face Toya. "Wounds like those and the amount of blood you lost would have killed a normal person." She put the buds of a stethoscope in her ears and the bell against Toya's chest. "From what I understand of the situation, you should have died the moment your back had hit the ground." She moved the bell around his chest before asking Toya to turn around and did the same on his back. "The fact that you're sitting here alive and breathing right now is nothing short of a miracle."

"Yeah." Toya chuckled rubbing the back his head head sheepishly. "Renji sometimes tells me that I'm so resilient its not even funny."

"And I'm inclined to agree with him." The doctor muttered removing the buds from her ears as Toya put the top of his uniform back on. "Alright, you should be fully healed in a month or two, but I want you to come back here once every three days to check your progress." She picked up a clipboard on her desk and flipped through the pages. "Also, until I deem you fully recovered, I want you to only observe your kido and zanjutsu classes to avoid doing anything strenuous as to not reopen your wounds."

"Yes ma'am." Toya nodded putting his arm through a sleeve when he remembered something. "I almost forgot, when I was healing Kanisawa, my spirit energy was drained a lot quicker than it usually does." He turned to the doctor who was writing on her clipboard. "I was wondering if you knew why."

"There are many possibilities as to why that happened." The doctor said not taking her eyes off the clipboard. "Those possibilities can range from you using more spirit energy than what was necessary to a Hollow with the power to drain your spirit energy was somewhere in the vicinity." She looked to Toya setting her clipboard on the desk beside her. "In any case, I still want you to come back once every three days to check your progress, I'll even see if there is anything wrong with your spirit energy."

"Yes ma'am." Toya nodded bowing to the doctor before leaving the infirmary to go back to his dorm to rest leaving the doctor to her thoughts.

' _So that's the boy the instructors were talking about._ ' She thought as she picked up the clipboard that had Toya's picture and information. ' _Toya, no surname, lives in the 78th district of south rukon. When taking the entrance exam, he got the second highest score on the written test and when he took the spirit energy evaluation test the orb turned silver in color._ ' She place the clipboard on her desk with a contemplative look on her face. ' _If I remember correctly, the color represents the latent potential they have to be a seated officer. I know red is for 20th seat and blue for 19th seat, what was silver for again?_ ' She shook her head and filed that thought away for later pondering as she got back to work.

* * *

As Toya walked into the dorms, he saw that Sakuya and Mahiru were just walking down the stairs talking to each other before they noticed him at the entrance. Toya smiled giving a small wave in greeting when they stopped in front of him. "Hey guys."

"Hey Toya." Sakuya greeted back with a grin on his face. "Great to see you out of the infirmary."

"The doctor said I should be fully healed in a month or two." Toya said looking down at his bandaged chest and sighed. "She also said to only observe my kido and zanjutsu classes until I've fully recovered."

"At least she isn't forbidding you from going to them." Mahiru pointed out placing a hand on Toya's shoulder only to pull it back when Toya winced at the touch. "Sorry."

"It's fine." Toya said waving off Mahiru's apology with a grin. "The pain just reminds me that I need to get stronger."

"You can say that again." Sakuya said placing a hand on his left shoulder. "If captain Ukitake and lieutenant Shiba didn't showed up when they did we'd be hollow bait right now."

"It still amazes me how lieutenant Shiba took on so many hollows by himself." Mahiru said with a contemplative look on his face. "Makes me wonder how strong captain Ukitake is."

"He must be strong if he's a captain." Sakuya pointed out when he had a sudden thought and looked to Toya. "That reminds me, how do you know lieutenant Shiba, Toya?"

"He saved my life back in the rukon district." Toya replied as he thought back to his first encounter with the squad thirteen lieutenant. "It was actually him that suggested that I join the academy."

"Seriously?" Sakuya's eye were wide at what he heard before grinning a nudging Toya with an elbow. "Well look at you, getting the attention of a lieutenant before you were even a student."

"I just hope I meet his expectations." Toya said smiling sheepishly tugging lightly at several strands of his hair that hung between his golden eyes.

"By the way, Toya." Mahiru said getting the white haired student's attention as he raised an eyebrow pointing to Toya's hair. "Did you decide to change how to do your hair?"

"Not really." Toya replied lifting up the strands to stare at it. "It's been like this ever since I left the infirmary and no matter what I do it goes back to hanging between my eyes."

"Let's see." Sakuya swept the strands to the side and sure enough they went back to hanging between Toya's golden eyes. "Huh, you're right." Sakuya leaned closer to get a better look making Toya feel uncomfortable before leaning back with a grin on his face. "Now that I look at it closely, you look a better with your hair like that."

"You think so?" Toya asked curiously as he tried to move the strands again.

"He's right." Mahiru nodded in agreement. "You should keep it that way."

"If you say so." Toya muttered under his breath when he had a sudden thought and looked to his friends. "I almost forgot, when that Hollow was about to kill you guys, I was suddenly in some weird place."

"What weird place?" Sakuya and Mahiru asked.

"It's hard to explain." Toya had a contemplative look as he tried to remember the strange world he was in. "There were thunder clouds everywhere with no signs of the sky or the ground." Then he remembered his encounter with the giant dragon and the words it said to him. "Then out of one of the clouds came this giant dragon made entirely of lightning."

"A dragon made of lightning?" Sakuya repeated in confusion as Mahiru's eyes widened in shock.

Toya nodded in confirmation. "And the strangest thing was I couldn't hear it's name when I asked." He looked down as he thought about the disappointed growl that came from the dragon. "It sounded disappointed that I couldn't hear it's name and before I found myself back at the shipyard it told me to show it that I'm worthy of being it's master."

"It couldn't be." Mahiru muttered resting his chin between his thumb and index finger as he thought over what Toya told them.

"What?" Sakuya asked looking at Mahiru in confusion. "What couldn't be?"

"I think Toya just met his Zanpakuto spirit." Mahiru replied surprising Sakuya and Toya as he looked to his white haired friend. "And that place you were in was probably your inner world."

"My Zanpakuto spirit?" Toya whispered in total shock as he looked down to his asauchi that rested against the left side of his waist. "I actually met it?"

* * *

After a month of checking his progress, the doctor in charge of Toya announced that he was fully healed and was shocked to not see a single scar on the white haired student despite how severe his wounds were. After getting over her shock, she allowed Toya to attend classes again with a warning that he is not to push himself or do any extracurricular activities for a week as a safety precaution. During his last visit to the infirmary, Toya asked the doctor if she found out anything about his spirit energy and was disappointed when she didn't find anything wrong saying that nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

To make up for not being able to practice his zanjutsu or kido while he was recuperating, Toya focused on his studies while he and Izuru help Renji study for classes he was behind in as well as try to enter his inner world to meet his Zanpakuto spirit again. As Toya took notes in all his classes and studied in the academy library, his thoughts would always wander to the Hollow Incident where he almost died with his friends and was saved by Kaien Shiba again along with his captain.

After classes were done for the day, Toya entered the training hall sitting in the center resting his asauchi on his lap and closed his eyes taking slow, even breathes as he began to meditate. He felt a slight pull on his consciousness and followed the pull before opening his eyes to see he was once again in the world of thunder clouds with the dragon from before looking down at him.

" **So you have returned.** " The dragon said as Toya got to his feet and looked up to the dragon. " **Have you come to try to learn my name?** "

"That's part of the reason I'm here." Toya replied hesitantly taking a step forward. "But the real reason I'm here is because I wanted to get to know you." He took another hesitant step forward and seeing as the dragon hasn't done anything yet slowly walked over to it. "Zanpakuto are suppose to be incarnations of a soul reaper's soul, I guess that would make you my other half, so I was hoping you would give me a chance to prove that I can be your partner."

" **So you think you handle my power?** " The dragon questioned lowering it's head to look Toya in the eye when he was close enough. ' _ **He best choose his words carefully, otherwise I will never acknowledge him as my master.**_ '

Toya shook his head and holding a hand out with the palm facing up. "I told you, I came here to get to know you. I'm not expecting you to just hand over your power if you don't trust me." He smiled up to the dragon. "I don't mind waiting, take as much time as you need to trust me."

' _ **He passed.**_ ' The dragon thought pressing it's snout against Toya's outstretch hand. " **My name is-** "

* * *

 **Damn it, another cliffhanger! I am so sorry my readers, I tried to avoid do two cliffhangers in a row, but no matter what I wrote it ended with a cliffhanger DX! I hope you can tolerate it until the next update. Now on to your reviews.**

 **Karsap** **: I wonder about that as well, unfortunately that's a secret.**

 **Shadow knight1121** **: Thank you for the praise and I hope you thought the same for this chapter.**

 **Lazymanjones96** **: Glad you thought it was interesting and I hope the wait was worth it.**

 **Shrednector15 : Glad to hear you think so. Hope I didn't kept you waiting too long. I hope this chapter meets your expectations.**

 **NekoKitsune1 : I'm sorry that this chapter ended in a cliffhanger as well T_T. here's hoping that this one doesn't eat away at you like the previous one.**

 **With that being said, till next time my precious readers!**


	6. Chapter 6

**I'm back with a new chapter my beloved readers! I know, I haven't posted any new chapters for any of my fanfics for a while now and I'm sorry, please don't kill me DX! It's just I've been very busy recently and suffering a bit a writer's block that I gave myself a little vacation to recharge and write chapters again with renewed dedication! But now I'm back and ready to put an end to your anticipation for what happens next in my many fanfics! Anywho, before we get on with my latest chapter, I just wanted you all to know that I found a better way to write Toya's name and as such will be changing the kanji in chapter 1 shortly after this is posted. For those of you who don't feel like going back to read chapter 1, here's the new way to write Toya's name: 冬靖. I think I've kept you for long enough, please read and enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter Six: Shikai Unveiled

Toya and Renji stood facing each other holding their swords with both hands with their eyes never leaving the other, waiting for who will make the first move. It was Renji who acted first quickly closing the distance between him and Toya clashing their swords staring each other down. They pushed back before charging at each other once again clashing and parrying blades with Izuru and Momo standing to the side watching the two hanging dog residents spar.

"Looks like you've improved, Toya." Renji commented with a grin on his face as they locked swords once again.

"Same could be said about you, Renji." Toya matched Renji's grin before pushing the red-head back and charging forward again. Renji readied his asauchi for a counterattack as Toya raised his sword over his head when he suddenly brought it to his side and swung at Renji who quickly blocked it. "You're getting better at predicting my feints."

"It's easy when you pull the same trick more than once." Renji pushed Toya back and began an aggressive assault leaving his white haired friend on the defensive. "Come on, don't tell me that's all you've got!"

"Looks like Renji's going spartan on Toya again." Momo and Izuru looked behind them to see Mahiru and Sakuya walking over towards them. Mahiru rested his hands on his hips watching Toya narrowly dodged a strike to the side. "That guy really doesn't know the meaning of the word restraint."

"He wouldn't be Renji if he did." Sakuya pointed out with a grin on his face. "I can't picture a guy like him not being aggressive."

Izuru let out a small laugh as he watched Renji locked swords with Toya whose back was against a tree. "Still, you'd think he'd learn to take it easy every once in a while."

"Especially when he spars with Toya." Momo added as Toya pushed Renji back and jumped to the side to gain some distance. "It seems like Renji is more aggressive with him than the rest of us."

"Well, it makes sense when you consider they came from the same district." Mahiru pointed out watching Toya use a tree to jump over Renji to avoid a side strike. "And it looks like Toya is good at using his surroundings to his advantage."

Izuru nodded in agreement as he carefully analyzed his two friends' fighting styles. "You're right, while Renji is more focused on frontal assaults, Toya seems to carefully analyze his opponents attacks and quickly finds a way to counter them."

"He also uses feints to throw his opponents off and create an opening for him to exploit." Sakuya added, watching Renji bring his blade down to block another of Toya's side strikes only to jump back when Toya suddenly made it an upward strike. "See, he faked a side strike to throw Renji off and quickly made it and upward strike."

Toya and Renji continued to trade blows with each other with Toya throwing a few feints and using the trees around him to attempt to put some distance between him and his red haired friend. Renji, however, would have none of that and quickly locked swords with Toya using all his weight to make it difficult for the white haired teen to escape. Toya brought their blades down and quickly jumped to the side away from Renji trying to catch his breath.

"Let's stop here, Renji." Toya said as he sheathed his sword looking over to his red haired friend. "How about I take a break while you and Izuru have a go?"

"Sounds good to me." Renji shrugged not looking the least bit exhausted resting his asauchi on his shoulder looking over to Izuru. "You up for a round, Izuru?"

"Only if you take it easy on me." Izuru replied jokingly smiling as he unsheathed his asauchi patting Toya on the shoulder as he walked by. "You did great out there."

"Thanks." Toya smiled to the blond before walking over to their other friends using an arm to wipe away the sweat on his forehead. "As usual, Renji showed no mercy."

"Only because you keep giving him reasons to show no mercy." Mahiru pointed out tossing a towel to the white haired student who caught it and began to wipe the sweat off his face. "One of these days, Renji is literally going to slice you in half, Toya."

"I'm not worried." Toya shrugged off Mahiru's comment with a confident grin and began to watch Renji and Izuru's sparring match. "I'm still here after all."

"And watch you jinx yourself." Sakuya jests leaning to the side to dodge the towel that Toya thrown at him and snickered.

"By the way, Toya." Momo said getting the three boys' attention as she pointed to Toya's asauchi. "Why is that wrapped around your asauchi?"

Toya looked down to his asauchi resting on his waist to see that the hilt and guard were both wrapped in a white cloth. Toya broke into a nervous sweat as he laughed and used a finger to scratch his cheek. "Oh, um, I thought it might look cool with it wrapped in cloth."

"Seriously?" Sakuya raised an eyebrow looking from the asauchi to Toya. "What made you think of that?"

"More importantly." Mahiru said looking at Toya's asauchi from every angle. "Did your asauchi's guard break or something? It looks rounder than it did before."

Toya just continued to laugh nervously as he took a step back followed by another. "I gotta go guys. I just remembered that I, uh, promised I would study with Rukia after sparring with Renji." Before he could be questioned anymore, Toya quickly ran in the direction of the academy. "See ya later!"

"What's with him?" Sakuya asked in confusion as they watched their white haired friend run.

"Who knows." Mahiru shrugged turning to watch Izuru and Renji spar. "He seemed nervous about something."

"Do you think he's in some sort of trouble?" Momo asked casting a worried look in the direction the Toya ran.

"No way." Mahiru and Sakuya replied waving a dismissive hand simultaneously. "Not that guy."

Toya continued to run until he approached the dorms before slowing to a walking pace to his dorm room. Once he reached and entered his room, Toya closed the door leaning his back against it, letting out a small sigh. "That was close, they almost found me out." He removed his 'asauchi' from his waist and undid the cloth to reveal that the handle was now a dark shade of blue and the guard was now circular in shape with two dragons chasing each others tails surrounded by clouds stamped on it. "Sorry about this, it's not that I don't want them to know about you, I just want to wait a little longer before telling them."

Toya then found himself in his inner world to see his zanpakuto spirit laying on a thunder cloud looking at him with understanding in its sapphire blue eyes. " **The choice of making my presence known is up to you, Master.** "

Toya sighed at what his zanpakuto spirit called him. Ever since he was able to hear his zanpakuto's name, the dragon insists on calling him "Master" despite Toya telling it that he doesn't want his zanpakuto spirit to call him that because he saw them as equals and one half of each other. The dragon refused every time Toya asks it to stop calling him "Master" saying that he is indeed its master and should be addressed as such and Toya gave up trying to change the dragon's mind soon after. This, however, didn't mean they don't have a strong connection with each other. The reason being that Toya spends most of his free time after studying talking to his zanpakuto spirit letting the two have a better understanding of each other.

Toya walked over to the electric dragon and ran a hand over its scaly body feeling a small tingle from the electricity running through his zanpakuto spirit. "I know, but I can't help but feel like I'm restricting you by not letting your power out more often."

" **You are not restricting me at all.** " The dragon said gently nudging its master to take a seat on the cloud coiling its body around it to make border wall to keep its master from falling off the edge resting its head next to Toya. " **Master, we zanpakuto are the incarnations of your soul, therefore my power is yours as well.** "

Toya smiled petting the dragon's snout getting a pleasant growl in response. "I told you, your my other half, I don't think I should use your shikai until you think I'm ready for it."

" **You have been ready, Master.** " The dragon replied with a knowing tone in its voice. " **You are just afraid that you will lose control and hurt those you care about.** "

Toya opened his mouth to protest that he wasn't but closed it when his zanpakuto spirit gave him a look that dared him to say otherwise. Toya looked away from the dragon knowing that it was right. He was afraid, afraid that when he releases his zanpakuto, he would lose control and end up unintentionally hurting or even killing someone. Images of Rukia, Renji, and his other friends being struck down by him flashed in his mind at that thought but shook it off a moment after when another thought crossed his mind.

"It's not just that." Toya admitted continuing to pet the dragon's snout trying to find the right words to explain what was on his mind. "I'm afraid of what I'll learn about my past too."

" **I know.** " The dragon's voice held great amounts of wisdom as it uncoiled itself from the thunder cloud. " **You are afraid that your past is one that is better off forgotten.** " It then spread out its wings creating powerful gusts of wind blowing away nearby thunder clouds leaving only the one Toya was currently sitting on. " **It is because of this fear that you are unable to take the next step forward.** "

"What should I do then?" Toya asked completely lost of what he should do with his fear of the unknown.

" **Face your fear.** " The dragon said before letting a roar filled with power that reverberated throughout Toya's inner world. " **Only by facing your fear will you take the next step on the path you walk.** "

Toya was then back in his dorm room and looked down to his sheathed zanpakuto as a smile etched itself on his face. "In other words, get it over and done with, right?" He let out a small chuckle pushing himself off the door and wrapping the cloth around the guard and hilt. The sound of knocking got his attention and turned to the door with a confused look on his face before opening it to see Rukia standing on the other side with her arms crossed. "Rukia, what are you doing here?"

"Toya." The white haired teen could tell from the tone in his petite friend's voice and her twitching eyebrow that she was pissed. "Did you forget what we were going to do after you sparred with Renji?"

Toya just blinked a couple of times in confusion before realization dawned on him as his eyes slightly widened and his mouth opened to let out a small. "Ah."

Rukia sighed shaking her head in exasperation. "I should have known." She uncrossed her arms and poked her white-haired friend in the chest. "We have a very important exam coming up and you promised to study with me."

' _I totally forgot._ ' Toya thought laughing nervously scratching his cheek with a finger. ' _I only said that before as an excuse to escape, quite ironic that I actually did promised that._ '

"Don't think laughing will get you out of this." Rukia reached out and grabbed Toya's wrist holding his concealed zanpakuto before tugging him out of his dorm room and dragging him down the hall. "Just because your scores are second highest in your class doesn't mean you don't have to study."

"Sorry, Rukia." Toya apologized using his free hand to rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish smile on his face. "I didn't mean to forget, but you know how it is with me and Renji when we spar."

"I know." Rukia sighed muttering under her breath about knuckleheaded boys and needing more female friends. "Renji I can understand, but you, Toya? Your memory is near perfect, which is a bit funny considering you have amnesia."

"Toya has amnesia?" Toya and Rukia stopped walking and looked ahead to see Momo at the end of the hall. She became flustered when Toya and Rukia's eyes were one her and waved her hands frantically. "Ah, sorry, I didn't mean to overhear!"

"It's cool, Momo." Toya said reassuringly releasing his wrist from Rukia's grip and smiled to Momo. "It wasn't like I was hiding it, it's just hard to bring it up in conversation."

"What are you doing here anyway, Momo?" Rukia asked in confusion as they walked closer to the pig tailed girl. "Weren't you with the guys to watch them spar?"

"I was." Momo nodded in response casting a curious glance to Toya. "But I wanted asked Toya why he ran away when we asked about his asauchi."

"Toya's asauchi?" Rukia raised an eyebrow in confusion looking to the item in question that was still in the white haired young man's hand. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion when she noticed the cloth wrapped around the guard and hilt as well as how the guard's appearance was different from hers.

Before Toya could react, Rukia snatched his zanpakuto from his hand, letting out a surprised yelp. "Hey, give that back!"

Rukia ignored him as she began to undo the cloth while Toya nervously looked anywhere but his two female friends as they both let out a small gasp when the cloth was fully unraveled. In Rukia's hands was not an asauchi, but a zanpakuto with a dark blue handle and a circular guard with two dragons chasing each others tails surrounded by clouds stamped on it.

"Toya." Rukia looked to the white haired teen who was sweating bullets trying to avoid looking to his friend as she held up his zanpakuto. "Is this what I think it is?"

Toya continued to avoid looking at his two female friends trying to pretend that he didn't hear the petite girl's question. He risked a side glance and flinched when narrowed violet orbs met his golden before sighing knowing that he couldn't hide it anymore and nodded in confirmation.

"When?" Momo asked curiously.

"Last year." Toya mumbled rubbing the back of his neck, a habit he developed when feeling stressed or uncomfortable. "A month after the incident in the World of the Living."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Rukia questioned looking to the zanpakuto in her hands then back to Toya, waiting for his response.

"I wanted to wait a little longer." Toya continued to rub the back of his neck before walking over to Rukia and held a hand out to her silently asking for his zanpakuto back. She placed the sword in his hand and he looked at it in deep thought. "I knew that if Renji found out he would practically demand I release it to see my Shikai."

"But?" Rukia urged on, knowing that there was more as to why he never told them he already obtained his zanpakuto.

Toya said nothing for a moment mentally cursing Rukia for knowing him so well when he barely knew himself. He sighed tightening his grip on his zanpakuto that seems to pulsate urging him to respond truthfully. He walked over to a nearby window and looked out to watch the clouds that reminded him of his inner world float by. "I'm scared."

"You're scared?" Momo repeated in confusion while Rukia blinked in surprise, not expecting her white haired friend to give that kind of response. "Scared of what?"

"Scared of losing control." Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves and brought his zanpakuto up to his face. "I've never released my zanpakuto because I was afraid I would lose control and accidentally hurt someone." Toya looked to his two friends and continued giving them a small sheepish smile. "A pretty stupid reason to hide it, I know."

Momo shook her head giving Toya an understanding smile. "It's not stupid, you were worried about us." She looked down to her asauchi gently placing her hand on the handle. "I'm sure I would feel the same if I were in your situation."

"She's right, you know?" Rukia smirked crossing her arms. "We would have understood if you told us instead of hiding it. Which reminds me..." She walked over to Toya then punched him in the arm getting a yelp of pain from the white haired teen. "That was for keeping it a secret."

"Do you always have to resort to violence?" Toya muttered under his breath rubbing his sore arm and flinched when she glared at him holding her fist daring him to repeat what he said. "Alright, I'm sorry!"

"Much better." Rukia nodded in satisfaction and lowered her fist getting a sigh of relief from Toya. "Doesn't mean you're off the hook, though."

Toya looked at her in disbelief getting a giggle from Momo who was standing to the side as she watched the two Hanging Dog residents argue with each other. Toya got to his knees and put his hands together in front of him with a pleading look on his face begging Rukia to not tell Renji only for the petite girl to turn her back to him crossing her arms. Because she was standing to the side, Momo could see the mischievous smirk that was on Rukia's face as she listened to her white haired friend beg.

Thinking that Toya suffered enough humiliation, Momo decided to speak up getting the white haired teen's attention. "Rukia, I think you can stop now."

"Huh?" Toya looked at Momo in confusion before looking back to Rukia who still had her back turned to him. When he looked closer, he could see that her shoulders were shaking slightly and started to connect the dots. Toya's eyes widened before he got to his feet. "Rukia!"

Unable to hold it in any longer, Rukia started to burst out laughing holding her sides leaning forward fighting to get air into her lungs. "S-sorry, but that was priceless!"

"That's not funny." Toya pouted as his face turned red in embarrassment when he remembered that he practically begged like a dog in front of one of his friends. He looked over to Momo to see that she had her hands over her mouth fighting desperately not to laugh. "Et tu, Momo?"

"Sorry." Momo apologized finally getting a hold of herself and lowered her hands. "Though you can only blame yourself for that."

"I'm still telling Renji, by the way." Rukia added, wiping away tears that built up in her eyes from laughing so hard and held up a hand when Toya opened his mouth to protest. "Toya, he has a right to know, he is the one who taught you how to hold a sword in the first place."

Toya closed his mouth at that knowing he lost and he wasn't getting out this and let out a sigh hanging his head in resignation. "Fine, you win."

Rukia nodded turning her back to him and began to walk down the hall again. "Good, then let's head back to tell the guys."

Toya groaned and reluctantly followed the petite girl along with Momo, dreading what's to come.

* * *

"Toya has what?!" Was the exclamation of surprise from Renji, Izuru, Sakuya, and Mahiru as their wide eyes stared at Toya who nervously fiddled with the cloth that he wrapped around his zanpakuto again to avoid getting the attention of any students that he passed.

"Apparently." Rukia started resting her hands on her hips casting a glance to Toya to make sure he was still there and not tried to run away before turning her attention back to the still shell-shocked males of their group. "Toya already had his zanpakuto since last year."

"Is this true, Toya?" Sakuya asked looking over to Toya who only nodded in response and began to slowly remove the cloth to reveal his zanpakuto to his friends. When the handle and guard was fully visible, Sakuya carefully inspected the zanpakuto from top to bottom before looking to Toya. "Did you release it yet?"

"If he did, then we would have felt it a long time ago." Mahiru pointed out giving their white haired friend a curious look. "Question is, why didn't you release it, Toya?"

"He was afraid he would accidentally hurt us if he did." Momo explained for Toya when he started to rub the back of his neck, unable to find the right words to explain why he kept his zanpakuto a secret.

"That's it?" Renji raised an eyebrow at Momo's explanation and calmly walked over to Toya. When he was close enough and Toya let his guard down, Renji brought his arm around Toya's neck and trapped the white haired teen in a choke hold surprising everyone present. "Don't take us lightly!"

"Renji!" Izuru shouted in surprise before he and Mahiru ran towards them to try and pry the redhead off the suffocating Toya. "Let go, he'll pass out at this rate!"

"Maybe passing out will knock some sense in that thick skull of his!" Renji retorted as he tightened his hold on Toya whose face started to turn blue from the lack of air in his lungs. "What made you think you would hurt us if you never released your zanpakuto before?!"

"I... didn't... want to risk it." Was what Toya managed to choke out with his hands on the arm around his neck weakly trying to get out of his irate friend's grip.

"And look where that got you!" Renji pushed Izuru and Mahiru off him and started grinding his knuckles against his captive's head getting painful cries in response. "Sometimes I wonder if there's even a brain in here!"

"I knew this was going to happen." Rukia muttered with her arms crossed as she watched everything unfold with Momo nervously standing beside her. When she saw Toya's eyes start to roll back, she decided it was time to intervene by walking past Izuru and Mahiru confusing them.

"Rukia?" Izuru looked to Mahiru and Momo who shrugged before looking back to see what Rukia was going to do.

"Hey, Renji." Renji looked to Rukia only to get a punch in the jaw causing him to lose his grip on Toya who slumped to the ground coughing holding his throat to get air back in his lungs. Renji took a few steps back holding his sore jaw before giving Rukia an irritated glare. Rukia rolled her eyes at the glare. "Oh, don't be a baby, I didn't hit you that hard."

"Then why is my jaw throbbing?!" Renji retorted rubbing his jaw to easy the throbbing a little.

"You really work on that temper of yours, Renji." Mahiru sighed and walked over to Toya holding out his hand. "You alright?"

"I'll live." Toya took the offered hand and Mahiru pulled him up to stand on his feet. He looked to Renji to see that, though still mad, has calmed down a little before looking to everyone else. "Sorry for not telling you guys. I wanted to wait until I was sure that I wouldn't lose control before saying anything."

"We understand, Toya." Mahiru said with an understanding smile crossing his arms. "I would probably do the same thing if it were me."

"Don't know why you thought you'd lose control." Sakuya grinned resting his hands behind his head in a laid-back manner. "You have the best control out of all of us, so you had nothing to worry about."

"I'm still pissed at you, Toya." Renji glared at Toya who guiltily looked to the side before his guilt turned to surprise when his red haired friend wrapped his arm around his head again but more in a friendly manner. Renji had a grin when he saw the surprised look on Toya's face and that he wasn't trying to get out of his grip. "Just kidding, you worry too much, you know that?"

"See, Toya?" Rukia smirked as Toya turned his surprised look to her. "You had nothing to be afraid of, so go ahead and do it."

Toya looked around to all his friends to see them smiling and patiently waiting for his response. Slowly, a smile etched itself on his lips as he got out of Renji arm and walked a short distance from everyone unsheathing his zanpakuto as he did so. He stopped walking and took a deep breath as the blade of his zanpakuto seem to vibrate with anticipation.

"Strike down from the heavens." Toya slowly raised his zanpakuto over his head as the blade continued to vibrate and glow. " **Raijinmaru!** "

The moment that Toya called out the name of his zanpakuto, the entire sword was encased in a flash of bright light that Toya's friends had to bring an arm up to shield their eyes as they watched it changed its form. The guard shrank and meld with the handle and the blade seems to have elongated in length a few inches. Once the light dimmed, they could see that in Toya's hand was a sword that the blade was now electric blue with crisscrossing black and blue wrappings on the handle and a light blue dragon head with sapphire blue eyes with its mouth open for the guard.

Toya lowered his released zanpakuto to look at it in awe as it was his first time seeing it. He could practically hear Raijinmaru roar in joy that his master finally decided to release his shikai. Toya smiled and turned to his friends holding up his zanpakuto. "Guys, I'd like you to meet my zanpakuto, Raijinmaru."

Sakuya was the first to break out of his awe at the sight of Toya's shikai as a big smile spread across his face as he ran over to the white head to loop an arm over his shoulder. "That's awesome, Toya! Your zanpakuto looks so cool!"

Slowly, the entire group got over their awe and started to surround Toya congratulating him on achieving shikai to the white head's happiness that he didn't lose control and none of his friends were hurt. Within his inner world he could hear Raijinmaru roaring in approval at his master's happiness.

"You see, Toya?" The white head looked to Rukia who was standing next to Renji with her arms crossed and a smirk on her face. "You released your shikai and we're all still standing."

Toya looked around at his group of friends to see that indeed they didn't have a single scratch on them. He looked to his released zanpakuto when he heard Raijinmaru begin to settle as sparks of electricity went from the mouth of the dragon head along the length of the blade. Getting the message, Toya smiled and walked away from his friends again before bringing his zanpakuto over his head with both hands on the handle. The blade became engulfed in electricity from the mouth of the dragon head. With a downward swing, a dragon made of lightning was released straight through the trees in front of Toya, severely burning them. Toya's eyes widened in panic before swinging upwards and the dragon began to rise into the sky and dispersed.

"That was awesome!" Sakuya shouted waving his arms excitedly like a child. "Did you guys see that?!"

"Of course we did." Mahiru replied with a fascinated look on his face before looking to Izuru. "So, I guess this means Toya has a lightning-type zanpakuto."

"It looks that way." Izuru nodded in agreement resting his chin between his thumb and index finger. "And it seems he can control where those lightning dragons go by swinging his zanpakuto."

Toya let out a silent relieved sigh before reverting Raijinmaru into its sealed state and sheathing it. ' _That was close, if it kept going straight, it would have hit the academy._ ' He turned and walked back to his friends with a smile on his face. ' _I didn't know I can control those dragons just by swinging Raijinmaru._ '

"Impressive, Toya." Renji grinned crossing his arms when his white haired friend reached them. "That dragon looked pretty powerful just now."

"Yeah, it really suits you." Rukia nodded in agreement. "What else can you do?"

"Beats me." Toya shrugged causing Rukia and Renji to fall over at his response. "That was my first time releasing Raijinmaru, I don't know anything else but that."

"Raijinmaru didn't tell you anything?" Momo asked curiously looking to Toya's zanpakuto that was resting comfortably on his waist.

"He said he'd tell me more when he felt I was ready." Toya looked down to his zanpakuto then back to his friends. "Something about me still needing time to grow when I asked him a while back."

"Well, there's nothing you can do about that." Mahiru looked up to the sky to notice that the sky was a bright orange color. "It's starting to get late, we should head back to the dorm now." Everyone nodded in agreement and began to walk in the direction the dorm was.

* * *

A week later, Toya, Renji, Izuru, Sakuya, Momo, and Mahiru were in their seats carefully writing answers on the question sheets on their desks. It was exam time for those in the advanced class and Toya risked a worried glance to Renji when he saw his red haired friend running his hand through his hair. After Toya released his zanpakuto for the first time and everyone returned to their dorm rooms for the night, Renji paid Toya a visit late at night asking to help him study. Toya was surprised that Renji asked to help him study when it was usually him dragging the red head to his study sessions with Izuru and Rukia but didn't ask question and studied with Renji for most of the night. They continued to study late at night until the night before exams with Toya helping Renji as much as he could and now he can only pray that it paid off.

"God, I'm glad that's over!" Sakuya exclaimed laying his head on his desk.

"It was just an exam, Sakuya." Mahiru shook his head at his green haired friend's action. "You sound like someone forced you to do a marathon."

"Can you blame me?!" Sakuya turned his head to the side to look in Mahiru's direction. "Some of the questions were almost impossible to answer!"

"Only because you don't study." Toya chuckled when Sakuya gave him a look of betrayal. "I did offer to help you when we learned about this exam."

"By the way, how well do you think you did, Toya?" Mahiru asked looking over to Toya.

"I think I did alright." Toya replied before looking over to Renji. "I'm worried about Renji, though."

"He'll be fine." Sakuya waved his hand dismissively before reaching into the folds of his uniform and held out a small bag to Toya. "Want some, it's dried persimmons."

"No, thanks." Toya shook his head politely fighting the urge to stick his tongue out in disgust. "I don't really like dried persimmons."

Sakuya shrugged before popping one in his mouth as the door slid open and Gengoro Onabara walked in with a roll of paper under his arm. "Alright class, the results have come in." He walked over to the blackboard and unfurled the paper on it revealing the names of all the students next to numbers.

Toya scanned the paper for his name when he found that Mahiru and Sakuya made it into the top fifty with Mahriu being placed number thirty and Sakuya forty-nine. He sighed in relief when he found Renji's name and saw that he placed thirty-second and went back to finding his name. He checked the number two spot where it usually was to see that Izuru's name was there to his surprise and saw that his name was in the number one spot.

"Wow, you actually beat Izuru." Sakuya whispered to Toya who was rubbing his eyes and rechecked to make sure that lack of sleep wasn't messing with him.

"Wait until Rukia hears about this." Mahiru smirked looking to Toya only to see that the white head wasn't there. "Toya?"

"He's over there." Izuru said pointing to the door as Mahiru and Sakuya followed where he was pointing to see that their white haired friend was being dragged out by an excited Renji. "Renji was so excited he passed that he wanted to tell Rukia."

"Renji, slow down!" Toya shouted as they ran down the halls of the academy, trying not to trip over his own feet. The red head didn't hear him as he continued to drag Toya through the halls narrowly dodging anyone in their. "I said slow down!"

Again Toya was ignored as they reached the end of the hall towards a door that Renji slid open. "Rukia! Guess what just happened!" He finally let go of Toya and walked in with Toya following soon after. "I passed the second exam isn't that great?! Now if I pass the next one..." He paused when he realized that Rukia wasn't the only one inside. Standing in front of Rukia were four men wearing shihakusho. The two men in the middle wore white robes over their shihakusho with one being an eldery man and the other was a younger man with slate gray eyes and long black hair, which he keeps up in intricate white kenseikan, wearing three on top of his head.

Toya peeked over Renji's shoulder to see the men with Rukia with his eyes lingering on the man with the kenseikan. ' _K_ _enseikan? Those are worn by the head of the Kuchiki Clan._ ' He looked to Rukia noticing that she had a troubled look on her face. ' _What do nobles want with Rukia?_ '

"Well, it seems our deliberations have been interrupted." The elderly man said noticing Renji and Toya before turning his attention back to Rukia. "Take a few days and consider the situation." He and the other three men then started to walk towards the door. "We are looking forward to hearing a favorable answer."

As they approached Renji and Toya, the two boys could do nothing but lower their eyes to the ground when the felt an immense pressure pressing down on their shoulders as the man with the kenseikan walked passed them. Toya couldn't stop his body from shaking as it became harder for him to breathe but quickly snapped out of it when the door behind him closed in what felt like hours to him when it was actually seconds.

"Renji, Toya." Rukia's voice brought the two boys' attention to her as she turned to face them.

"Oh, uh, Rukia." Renji finally said after getting a hold of himself. "How are ya doing? You had some pretty important looking visitors just now, huh? Sorry to interrupt."

"What was that all about, Rukia?" Toya asked only for Rukia to look away from her friends which worried Toya. "Rukia?"

Rukia said nothing at first before sighing and looked back to Toya and Renji. "That was the Kuchiki family, they want to adopt me as their daughter." Toya and Renji's eyes widened in shock at hearing that one of the four noble clans wanted to adopt their friend. "They said that they're going to let me graduate right away and then after that they can make arrangements to put me straight into one of the thirteen court guard squads."

"Are you serious?" Toya couldn't believe what he was hearing. Rukia, one of his first friends from the rukon district, is going to graduate ahead of them and join one the thirteen court guard squads. He felt sad that they would had to say good bye, but he also felt happy for Rukia, because she now have a family.

"Yeah." Rukia nodded before sighing and lowering her head slightly. "I-I don't know what to do."

"What do you mean, Rukia?" Renji said placing his hands on Rukia's shoulders with an excited smile on his face. "Of course you know what to do, you say 'yes'!"

Toya could tell that the excitement and smile Renji was giving were fake and was just giving a strong front as he rants about the benefits of accepting the Kuchiki Clan's offer. When he looked to Rukia, Toya saw in her eyes that what Renji was ranting about was not what she wanted to hear. She wanted to hear Renji, who she has known since they were kids, tell her to decline their offer and to stay with them. Toya didn't feel like he should say anything as he hasn't known Rukia or Renji for as long as they have known each other and that this was something that should be between only them. With his mind made up, Toya quietly left the room to give his two friends some privacy, already knowing what was going to happen.

* * *

 **And that's it for chapter six, I hope the wait was worth it my readers. Now for me to reply to your reviews.**

 **Karsap: I think the title of the chapter answers that question.**

 **Shadow knight1121: Sorry for the cliffhanger, I can't seem to stop myself from ending with those. I'm glad to hear that you thought the chapter was good and that you loved the fight with the hollows and that I didn't make Toya too OP, I believe that strength is something that should be gradually earned. Sorry to keep you waiting, here's the latest chapter.**

 **Heartfang: You were partially right, just missed four letters, but right nonetheless. Yup, that's how I got the name Raijinmaru.**

 **With that being said, till we meet again!**


	7. Chapter 7

**I'M BAAAAAAACK! Sorry for leaving you hanging like that my precious readers, but with the whole COVID-19 going on, it had been pretty crazy at work and I can hardly find time to write. But that won't stop me from writing as much as I can so I can at least help entertain those stuck at home with my fanfics. I guess you can say that my fanfics are my way of fighting Covid-19 by turning your attention to something else to help ease your worries. I think other fanfic authors would agree with me when I say that this pandemic won't stop us from meeting your expectations of us by providing with new chapters as soon as we can. With that being said, stay healthy and safe during this troubled time and enjoy this latest chapter!**

* * *

Chapter Seven: A Decision to Make

One year has passed since Rukia had been adopted into the Kuchiki Clan and graduated from the soul reaper academy ahead of Renji and Toya. Ever since their encounter with the Kuchiki Clan head, Toya knew he had to work harder if he wanted to make it as a soul reaper. With that in mind, Toya doubled his efforts in both his studies and training, but didn't let it affect his social life by making sure to spend time with Renji, Sakuya, Mahiru, Izuru, and Momo. Toya got closer with them all and told the ones who didn't know already that he had amnesia and his reasons for becoming a soul reaper. At first it was so he could search for any hints to his identity easier, but after being saved by Kaien Shiba not once but twice and talking to Captain Ukitake, he wanted to be like them and be a protector.

Toya is currently sitting in the academy library reading a book about the Soul Society's history and how it was founded. While reading, Toya thought back to his training with Raijinmaru and how he now had slightly better control over the lightning dragons he creates. Naturally, their teachers found out about him obtaining shikai and the news spread like wildfire which started new rumors about him and his origins.

"Um, excuse me?" Toya looked up from his book to see a girl he's never seen before standing nervously in front of him. She was a petite young girl with long, crimson red hair that reached just above her waist, golden yellow eyes, and wore the academy girls uniform. Her hands were in front of her holding her school books. "I'm sorry to bother you."

"It's alright." Toya said with a friendly smile as he closed his book and set it on the table to give the girl his full attention. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"Um, well, you see…" The girl said nervously, messing with the hakama of her uniform and looking anywhere but Toya. "I-I'm new here and got lost when trying to find my class."

"I take it you're a freshman then?" Toya questioned, getting up from his seat and picking up his book. When the girl nodded Toya gave a good natured chuckle. "Don't worry, it's natural to get lost when in a place you're not familiar with." He picked up his other books he had set to the side. "What class are you in? I can show you where it is."

"You don't have to do that!" The girl said, waving her hands frantically. "Simple directions would be enough!"

"I don't mind." Toya tucked his books under one arm before walking towards the library's door. "I was about to head to my next class anyway." He opened the door and turned to give the girl another friendly smile. "So why not keep each other company until we split ways?"

"Well, when you put it that way." The girl said in uncertainty before running over to Toya and they both left the library to walk down the halls of the soul reaper academy. "Thank you for doing this for me."

"Think nothing of it." Toya continued to smile at the girl as they turned the corner. "So, are you in the advanced or average class?"

"I'm in the average class." The girl replied, adjusting her hold on her books before looking up to Toya. "What about you?"

"The average class, huh." Toya said distantly, slowing to a stop when he remembered that Rukia was in the average class as well before being adopted into the Kuchiki Clan.

Every time he passed the average class, he always thought back to the limited time he spent together with Renji and Rukia back in the rukon district. They were the first friends he ever made to his knowledge, they were like his teachers, teaching him everything they knew about the Soul Society and how to fight with a sword. He didn't know when it started, but Toya began to see Renji and Rukia as if they were his brother and sister and he enjoyed every moment they spent together. The white haired teen knew that they would separate to follow different paths eventually, but he didn't think it would be so soon after entering the academy together.

' _I wonder how Rukia's doing._ ' Toya randomly thought, his mind flashing back to the day that his petite black haired friend he saw as a sister left the academy. His mind then wandered to the man who he thought was the head of the Kuchiki Clan and the immense power he sensed emanating from him. Toya's grip on his books tightened slightly as a serious look etched itself on his face. ' _That man better have been taking care of my sis, or else I'm going to sic one of Raijinmaru's lightning dragons on him._ '

"I-is something wrong?"

"Huh?" Snapping out of his thoughts, Toya looked to the girl he was guiding to see a concerned look on her face. Laughing sheepishly and scratching the back of his head, Toya continued walking down the hall with the girl following soon after. "Sorry about that, I got lost in thought." Realizing he never answered the girl's question, Toya looked to the redhead next to him. "As for what class I'm in, I'm in the advanced class."

"Wow, the advanced class?" The girl looked to Toya in admiration as they rounded a corner. "You must be really talented if you're in that class."

"Not really." Toya blushed in embarrassment, remembering Sakuya telling him that some of the teachers called him a prodigy even though he didn't think so. Toya was a modest person and treated everyone equally, no matter their status or rank, which made him easy to approach and popular among his classmates. "I'm no different than the rest of you in this academy."

"Toya!" Turning to see who called out to him, Toya could see Mahiru running towards him with Izuru by his side. Stopping in front of the white head, Mahiru placed his hands on his knees trying to catch his breath. "We've been looking everywhere for you."

"Why?" Toya asked with a perplexed look on his face as to why two of his friends were looking for him. "Our usual sparring matches with Renji, Sakuya, and Momo isn't until after classes today."

"It's not that." Izuru said looked to Mahiru, who was still catching his breath, then back to Toya. "We were looking for you because there's someone waiting for you in your dorm room."

"My dorm room?" Toya blinked in surprise, trying to remember if he was meeting anyone there only to come up empty. "Who?"

"A… cap… tain." Mahiru replied between breaths straightening his posture to see the looks of shock being directed at him by Toya and the girl standing next to him. "A captain is waiting in your dorm room, Toya."

"A-a captain?" Toya asked in disbelief, unsure that he heard his friends correctly. "A-are you guys sure?"

"No doubt about it." Izuru nodded his head in confirmation. "He had the captain's coat and everything."

Toya's mind was racing as he tried to process what Izuru and Mahiru said before it finally sunk in. A captain of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads is in his dorm room right now and he didn't know why. Toya was sure that he didn't do anything that would warrant a captain coming to the academy looking for him. Many scenarios played out in Toya's head as to why would a captain be waiting for him in his dorm room but none made any sense. He then remembered that he had left Raijinmaru on his bed and his golden eyes widened at that revelation.

"Mahiru!" Toya said quickly, dropping his books to grab Mahiru by the shoulders before gesturing his head to the girl he was guiding. "That girl's in the average class and needs help finding her classroom, can you help her find it?" Only giving Mahiru enough time to open his mouth, Toya started to run down the hall in the direction of the dorms. "Thanksbye!"

"Uh..." Was what left Mahiru's lips blinking a few times as he looked on in the direction his white headed friend ran in. He looked from where he was staring at the direction Toya ran to the girl then to Izuru with a confused look on his face. "What just happened?"

"Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap." Toya muttered under his breath as he skillfully dodged any students in his path that were too slow to get out of the way as the dorms came into view. "Why did I choose today to leave Raijinmaru in my room?" Entering the dorms, Toya made a beeline down the hall towards his dorm room and reached to slide it open with one thought repeating itself in his head. ' _Please don't be a scary captain!_ '

Taking a deep breath, Toya slid the door open to see who was in his room and inevitably saw his zanpakuto on his bed. Standing in the center of the dorm room with Raijinmaru in their hands was a familiar tall emaciated man with long white hair and brown eyes. From the corner of his eye, Toya could see another familiar figure standing in the corner near the white haired captain.

"Captain Ukitake, Lieutenant Shiba!" Toya's voice caught the aforementioned captain and lieutenant's attention as they looked to the door to see Toya standing just outside with a surprised look on his face before standing at attention and bowing lowly. "It's a great honor to see you both again!"

Chuckling good naturedly at Toya's attempt at being formal, captain Ukitake set Raijinmaru back on Toya's bed and focused his attention on the white head outside of the dorm room. "It's good to see you as well, Toya."

"Sup, kid." Kaien greeted him with a two fingered salute as Toya straightened his posture. "Have any Hollows attacked you recently?"

"N-no." Toya replied, thinking back to the two times that he was attacked by hollows and how he was saved both times by the very lieutenant in front of him. His mind coming to a complete stop at that thought, Toya looked over to Kaien before bowing again much to the confusion of the squad thirteen lieutenant. "I never had the chance to say this those times, but thank you for saving my life not once but twice."

"Just doing my job." Kaien said, waving off Toya's gratitude before grinning at Toya. "But, from what we've heard, you probably won't need saving anymore."

"What you've heard?" Toya asked in confusion as he straightened his posture. "What do you mean?"

"Why don't we get comfortable before we discuss this further?" Toya looked from Kaien to captain Ukitake who smiled and gestured to the younger white head to come in. "After all, it's better to be sitting down instead of standing while we talk."

"Uh, right!" Getting in and shutting the door, Toya scurried across his room pulling out a table and cushions. "Please, have a seat while I make us some tea."

"Thank you for your hospitality." Ukitake smiled gratefully as he and Kaien took their seats while Toya went about the process of making tea for his unexpected guests. Ukitake took a look around the dorm room to see that it was tidy, not a trace of dust anywhere. "It would appear that you keep things organized here."

"I like to keep things tidy." Toya replied, setting three cups on the table and poured the recently made green tea into them before taking a seat to join the captain and his lieutenant. "Please, enjoy. It's hot, so be careful."

"Thank you." Ukitake was the first to pick up his cup and blew on it a few times to cool the hot tea before bringing it to his lips to take a sip. "It's delicious, better than most I've had before." Suddenly realizing something, Ukitake set his cup down and turned his attention to Toya. "How rude of me, I haven't properly introduced myself yet. My name is Jushiro Ukitake and I'm the captain of squad thirteen." He then gestured to Kaien who was taking a sip of his own tea. "You have already met him, but this is my lieutenant, Kaien Shiba."

"I'm Toya." Toya bowed to the captain and lieutenant for the third time that day. "It is a great honor to see you both under different circumstances this time around."

"You can drop the formalities with us, kid." Toya looked to Kaien who had a knowing look on his face as he crossed his arms. "We both know that you treat everyone as equals despite their rank or status." With a grin on his face Kaien reached over and ruffled Toya's hair to the surprise of the white headed academy student. "So don't force yourself to be formal because of the captain and me!"

"Kaien's right." Jushiro said, taking another sip of his tea before smiling friendly to Toya was fixing his hair. "Just be yourself and everything will be fine."

"Uh, right." Toya nodded as he took a deep breath to calm his nerves before taking a sip of his tea. Toya let out a content sigh at the warmth coursing through his body as he started to relax slightly.

"Now that you're a little more relaxed, could you please tell me about yourself, Toya?" Jushiro politely asked and upon seeing Toya's curious look on his face he explained further. "I have heard many things about you. Some good, some bad, but I'd like to get to know you personally to see what kind of person you are."

"I see." Toya nodded in understanding, knowing that many rumors had spread around about him ever since he attended the academy. "So, what do you want to know?"

"That's up to you." Jushiro replied, taking another sip of his tea before smiling at Toya. "Don't think of this conversation as one between subordinate and superior, but like two newly acquainted friends getting to know one another."

"Um, okay." Toya thought hard as to what he should tell the older man in front of him. He then remembered what Renji, Izuru, Sakuya, Mahiru, and Momo told him about his personality. "I've been told I'm friendly and modest, never bragging about my accomplishments and can be pretty stubborn when I make up my mind on something."

Jushiro nodded to show that he was listening. "Go on."

"My favorite foods are watermelon and amanatto, but I don't like dried persimmons." Toya continued, looking up in thought to think of what else he should say about himself. "I guess my favorite pastime is spinning tops."

"Spinning tops?" Kaien raised an eyebrow at the mention of Toya's favorite pastime.

"I know spinning tops are a bit childish." Toya chuckled, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "It started out as a way to kill time." He reached into the folds of his uniform and pulled out a beigoma. "But as I kept doing it, I found it quite fun and now spin tops every chance I get."

"That's understandable." Jushiro nodded, looking at the beigoma in the younger white head's hand before taking another sip of his tea. "While it's good that you take your studies seriously, it doesn't hurt to relax and have fun every once in a while."

"So, have you spun tops with anyone else?" Kaien asked when he noticed that a few scratches on the beigoma in Toya's hand looked recent compared to the others. "Looks like it judging by the scratches."

"Mostly with my friends when we have the time." Toya replied as he set the beigoma down on the table. "They told me I'm pretty skilled at it, but I don't really think so."

"And there's proof about you being modest." Kaien grinned as he recalled what Toya said about himself. "How about we have a match later to see how skilled you are?"

"I'm afraid that will have to wait, Kaien." Jushiro said, bringing Toya's attention back to the white haired captain who took another sip of his tea. "Let's not forget the reason why we're here."

"I guess this is where the serious talk happens." Toya said, taking a sip of his tea before surprising the captain and lieutenant as a calm, mature, and serious expression formed on his face. "As much as I enjoyed your company, I think it's time we cut to the chase." Toya watched the captain and lieutenant with calculating eyes for any signs of deceit in their body language. "Why would a captain and lieutenant of one of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads want to talk to me of all people?"

Jushiro was the first to get over his surprise as he took his cup into his hands and looked down at his reflection before looking back to Toya. "Do you remember the Hollow Incident, the one where we first met?"

Toya nodded in confirmation before looking to where Raijinmaru was resting on his bed as he thought back to that day. He could never forget that day as It was seared into his memory because it had a significant impact on his life. It was where he met and became friends with Mahiru, learned just how merciless Hollows can be, meeting Raijinmaru for the first time, meeting Kaien again and meeting Jushiro for the first time, and learning what it truly means to be a soul reaper. Toya will never forget that day for as long as he lived and will use it to push himself to get stronger so it will never be repeated.

"After that incident," Jushiro continued, turning Toya's attention back to the squad thirteen captain. "The head captain decided to have the academy and its students monitored by the Stealth Force for a while to ensure their safety."

"The Stealth Force?" Toya's eyes widened in shock at the name he just heard. "You mean one of the three forces under the direct supervision of Central 46?"

"Well, it looks like someone did their homework." Kaien smirked as he took a sip of his tea.

"That is correct." Jushiro nodded, reaching into the folds of his shihakusho, and pulled out a folded sheet of paper before setting it on the table. "They were ordered to be on the lookout for any suspicious activity as well as give a detailed report on the students' progress." Jushiro slid the paper over to Toya who picked it up and unfolded it to read what was written inside to see a list of names. "The names you see there are the students that we captains think are ready to join our ranks in the Thirteen Court Guard Squads."

"I don't understand." Toya looked up from the paper to give Jushiro a confused stare. "Why come all this way just to tell me all this and show me this list?"

"Keep reading, kid." Kaien crossed his arms and nodded to the paper in Toya's hand. "You'll see why."

Toya continued to stare at the squad thirteen captain and lieutenant before continuing to read the names on the list of possible candidates. He saw a few of his classmates' names on the list along with Izuru and Momo which didn't surprise him in the slightest. Toya noticed that some names were crossed out while others were not. What did surprise him was when he reached the end of the list. At the very bottom was a single name that stood out from the rest as it had no surname. Toya was very familiar with the name, because it was his own that he was staring at in complete and utter shock at seeing that it was circled.

"The reason we are here, Toya, is for one reason." Toya tore his eyes away from the paper to look up to Jushiro as the elder man smiled invitingly. "And that is to offer you the opportunity to graduate early and join us in squad thirteen."

Toya couldn't believe what he was hearing out of the squad thirteen captain's mouth and had to fight the urge to pinch his cheeks to check if he was dreaming or not. The white head wanted to become a soul reaper as soon as possible and the opportunity to graduate early has just presented itself in front of him. He wanted to accept the offer right then and there, but then a conflicted look formed on Toya's face as he thought about Rukia's adoption and his friends that he made in the academy that he would be leaving behind.

"Can… can I have some time to think this over?" Toya asked hesitantly, handing the paper back to Jushiro before looking down to his now lukewarm tea to stare at his reflection that was staring back with uncertainty in its golden orbs.

"Of course." Jushiro nodded in understanding, drinking the last of his tea before standing followed by Kaien. "Take as much time as you need to make up your mind." Jushiro bowed to Toya before he and Kaien left the dorm room.

When the room's door was fully closed, Toya got to his feet and walked to his bed picking Raijinmaru before sitting on his bed legs crossed resting his zanpakuto on his lap. Toya closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he concentrated before he felt the familiar pull on his consciousness. Letting his consciousness be pulled, Toya soon found himself in his inner world where Raijinmaru laid on a thunder cloud with one eye on Toya.

" **You are bothered, Master.** " Raijinmaru stated, lifting its head and spreading its large wings to their full length. A loud rumbling filled the silence of Toya's inner world as the thunder clouds sparked with electricity. " **What seems to trouble you so?** "

"A captain and lieutenant of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads came to talk to me today." Toya replied, playing the conversation he had with Jushiro in his head over and over again as he thought of what his response should be. "They offered me a chance to graduate early and become a soul reaper right away."

" **But you are unsure of what your response should be.** " Raijinmaru said, completing its master's concern. " **Why come to me when you can talk this over with your friends?** "

"Because they'll just push me to accept the offer." Toya ran a hand through his hair frantically at the thought of Renji pretending to be excited like he did with Rukia and pushing him to accept Jushiro's offer.

" **They only want what is best for you, Master.** " Raijinmaru said, rising to its full height flapping its wings slightly to disperse a thundercloud that got too close to its master. The dragon looked down to its master with a knowing look in its blue eyes. " **Enlighten me, master, is there not another reason you are conflicted about accepting?** "

' _Should have known he noticed._ ' Toya raised a hand up to his zanpakuto spirit and Raijinmaru brought its head down towards him. When the zanpakuto spirit was close enough, Toya began to gently rub Raijinmaru below its maw, getting a content sound from the dragon. "I guess... I don't think I'm good enough yet."

" **Do not be so modest, Master.** " Raijinmaru coiled his body around the cloud his master stood on. " **You have more than proven you have what it takes to be a soul reaper.** "

"In what way?" Toya asked in confusion as he watched his zanpakuto spirit continue to coil around him before Raijinmaru paused to look directly at his master.

" **If I were to choose a moment as an example.** " Raijinmaru uncoiled himself from the cloud and backed away from Toya. " **It would be the time you fought against a Hollow despite being a freshman to protect your friends**."

Toya knew what his zanpakuto spirit was talking about as he remembered that day. It was during his first class' first field training in the World of the Living, where he met Mahiru and Raijinmaru for the first time. It was practice fights against dummy Hollows that quickly spiraled into chaos when a large group of real Hollows appeared out of nowhere and attacked them. At first he felt fear, but when Sakuya and Mahiru were in danger, Toya gathered all his courage and fought the Hollow to protect them.

"That doesn't mean I have what it takes." Toya muttered in response to the zanpakuto spirit's claims in his abilities. In truth, he didn't stand a chance against the Hollow and the most he could have done was chop off a limb. "I was just being stupid and reckless."

" **Are you sure about that?** " Raijinmaru questioned, doubt filled in his deep voice as the dragon lowered his head to look closer at his master. " **Master, why did you decide to become a soul reaper?** "

Confused by the question from his zanpakuto spirit, Toya opened his mouth to respond but closed it again when no words left his lips. He still remembers the day Rukia brought up the idea of him becoming a soul reaper to help find clues about his past. Initially, Toya didn't know if becoming a soul reaper would truly lead him to clues to his forgotten past and would be worth it. However, after being saved by Kaien Shiba, Toya made up his mind to become a soul reaper to be the first step of learning about his past. He began to have doubts about his decision when he couldn't find any clues about the tattoo on his right foot in any of the books he read.

Noticing that his master fell silent and deep in thought, Raijinmaru sensed that Toya was conflicted about his past decisions. The zanpakuto spirit could tell that his master is having difficulty coming up with an answer to his previous question and asked another. " **Master, do you regret protecting your friends from that Hollow?** "

"Of course not!" Toya shouted instantly, snapping out of his thoughts with eyes wide in shock that his zanpakuto spirit would ask him a question like that. Swinging an arm to the side as if to throw such a thought away, Toya looked up to Raijinmaru with resolve in his golden orbs. "I would never regret that and I would do it again as many times it would take to prove it!"

Raijinmaru continued to look down at his master for the slightest signs of his resolve wavering. The dragon closed his eyes in satisfaction at seeing that his master's resolve hadn't budged for a moment. " **Then I believe you have the answer you have been looking for.** "

"What?" Toya blinked in confusion at his zanpakuto spirit's words.

" **You were unsure as to whether or not to accept that captain's offer as well as how to answer my earlier question.** " Raijinmaru explained, laying down on a thundercloud and folding his wings against his back. " **The questions I asked were to help make it easier to come to a decision.** "

"How did those questions he-" Toya paused mid-sentence at realizing what his zanpakuto spirit was trying to say and remembered his answer when the dragon asked him if he regretted protecting his friends.

" **It seems you realized it.** " Raijinmaru commented on seeing the realization begin to dawn on his master. " **Your answer to my question is all I need to prove you have what it takes to be a soul reaper, to be a protector.** "

"A protector, me?" Toya muttered under his breath, thinking back to the times he ever protected anyone.

The first time was a little girl that was about to be eaten by a humanoid snake Hollow, the second was Sakuya and Mahiru from a centipede Hollow. Both times he was so scared he wanted to run, but the thought of doing so and leaving them to die left a bad taste in his mouth. Both times he saved a life, both times he nearly died doing so, but not once did he regret risking his life to protect them. A small smile formed on Toya's lips as he looked up to Raijinmaru to see the lightning dragon nodding his head in approval.

" **It would appear you have made your choice, Master.** " Toya nodded in reply before bowing in gratitude and focused on leaving his inner world. When his master had left, Raijinmaru looked up to the thunderclouds swirling above him. " **May you be prepared for when the answers you seek make themselves known to you.** "

After leaving his inner world, Toya opened his eyes and set Raijinmaru beside him before looking out his window to notice that it was dark outside. He sets Raijinmaru against the wall by his bed before climbing under his sheets, letting himself be pulled into a deep sleep.

There was nothing to be seen except pitch black, nothing to be heard except agonizing screams, nothing to be felt except the cold hard ground. Unbearable pain, as if claws were shredding him from the inside, welled up deep within his very being. Faint footsteps could be heard over the screams before they became silent and the footsteps ceased as muffled voices conversed with one another.

"Another… only two… what…"

"… time… terminate… nothing behind…"

"… no… survive… soul… succeed…"

Eyes opened slightly to see the sight of two blurry, shadowy, figures standing over him from where he laid on the ground. One of the shadowy figures reached down to grab him only to quickly back away when a long, thick object slammed between them. Red began to cloud his vision as an intense bloodlust filled the air and an insatiable need for the taste of blood before rushing towards the shadowy figures.

Screams were heard once more over the sound of fighting, debris flying with each strike made, pain with each wound inflicted, and finally silence as he laid motionless on the ground as the two figures left. Another figure knelt beside him, gently placing a hand on his head and whispering in his ear as his eyes slowly began to close. He couldn't process what was being muttered into his ear except two words.

"Strike, Rayo."

Toya bolted to a sitting position on his bed, hands tightly clenching his sheets, breathing hard as he looked around to see he was in his dorm room. Toya relaxed and let out a small sigh before laying back down but couldn't go back to sleep so he just stared at the ceiling as he thought about the dream he just had.

"Was that a dream?" He turned to his side and pulled the sheets over his shoulder when he felt a chill. "Or could that have been a memory?" Toya closed his eyes and concentrated to remember all he could of his dream only to sigh before opening his eyes. "No good, I can't remember."

Knowing that he wasn't going to fall back asleep, Toya tossed his sheets off of himself, grabbed his zanpakuto from the wall he left it, and climbed out of bed before proceeding to leave his dorm room to walk along the empty halls with the gentle glow of the crescent moon in the sky as his only source of light. Upon reaching the front entrance, the white haired student left the building and walked along the familiar path towards the academy. Once Toya was halfway down the path to the academy, he walked off the path and continued to walk through the trees until he reached a clearing with a single stone half his height in the middle of the clearing.

Toya stood several meters in front of the stone and unsheathed Raijimaru from its scabbard before taking a deep breath. "Strike down from the heavens, **Raijinmaru!** " Raijinmaru glowed brightly as its shape morphed into its shikai state with electricity travelling from the dragon mouth down the length of the blade. " **Bakudo #4: Hainawa.** " With a swing of his zanpakuto, Toya released a small, thin, lightning dragon that wrapped itself around the stone and sparked with electricity.

"Interesting way to use kido." Toya jumped at the sudden voice and turned to see Kaien leaning against a tree with his arms crossed. Standing beside him was Jushiro who had a fascinated look on his face. "You combined a simple Hainawa with your zanpakuto's attack so it would both restrict and paralyze any opponent you face."

"Kaien, captain Ukitake." Toya's eyes widened in surprise as he sealed and sheathed Raijinmaru before approaching the captain and lieutenant. "I thought you both went back to your squad."

"We did." Kaien nodded with an amused smile before reaching into the folds of his shihakusho and pulled out a beigoma. "But I realized that you and I never had that top spinning match."

"But then we saw you were heading here and decided to see what you were doing." Jushiro said, getting the white haired student's attention. He looked to the stone that still sparked with electricity from Toya's attack. "It was quite an impressive sight, it's very difficult for most soul reapers to concentrate combining kido with their zanpakuto's attack."

"And yet you did it so easily." Kaien chuckled when he saw Toya blushing at the praise that his captain was giving the white haired student. "If you're this skilled while being a third year, I can only imagine how strong you'll be when you graduate."

"About that." Toya said getting confused looks from both Jushiro and Kaien as he looked down to Raijinmaru that rested comfortably on his side before looking back to the captain and lieutenant. "I talked things over with Raijinmaru and am ready to give you my response to your offer earlier."

"Are you sure?" Jushiro asked as Kaien pushed himself off the tree. "You don't have to give me a response right away."

Toya shook his head and rested a hand on Raijinmaru's handle. "Whenever I'm troubled, Raijinmaru always gives me advice when I need it or when I ask. And there hasn't been a time where his advice led me astray." The white haired student smiled when he heard his zanpakuto spirit growling in approval at his words.

"You must really trust your zanpakuto." Jushiro smiled warmly to the younger white haired boy and how he handled his zanpakuto with great care.

"I trust Raijinmaru with my life, so there's no need for me to think it over when I say this." He looked at Jushiro before bowing deeply to the surprised white haired captain. "I'll be in your care from now on, captain Ukitake."

Breaking out of his surprise, Jushiro smiled and placed a hand on Toya's shoulder after the white haired student straightened himself. "I look forward to working with you, Toya."

The next morning finds Toya standing in front of the academy with Jushiro and Kaien standing to his left and right respectively, Raijinmaru in one hand and a bag in the other. Toya looked at the academy, reliving every moment he had in the building's halls and the friends he made. He knew that he would see them again when they graduate, though he was still a little sad that he was leaving ahead of them. Knowing he didn't have time to say goodbye to all of them, Toya wrote them each a goodbye note the previous night after returning to his dorm room and left them outside their respective doors.

"Ready to go, Toya?" Jushiro asked, placing a comforting hand on Toya's shoulder, knowing that the younger white haired boy was having trouble leaving his friends without saying goodbye. "We aren't in any rush, so you can still say goodbye to your friends."

Toya just shook his head and looked to his new captain with a small smile. "I'm fine, just mentally preparing myself."

"Are you sure?" When Toya just nodded in response, Jushiro looked to Kaien and they both nodded as they began to walk away from the academy with Toya behind them.

"Toya!" The white haired boy's eyes widened at hearing his name being called out and turned back to the academy to see Renji, Sakuya, Mahiru, Izuru, and Momo standing at the entrance breathing hard from running as fast as they could.

"Good luck, Toya!" Sakuya shouted, waving a hand enthusiastically with a big smile on his face. "We'll see you when we graduate!"

"You better let us know how you're doing until then you hear me!" Mahiru followed Sakuya's example by waving his white haired friend off with a smile.

"I look forward to seeing how much you improve the next time we meet, Toya!" Izuru said with a smile and his hands cupped over his mouth.

"Take care of yourself!" Momo said, tears building in her eyes at seeing another of her friends leaving ahead of their group.

"Toya!" The white haired boy looked to Renji who raised a fist with his signature grin on his face. "You better do your best out there, cause if I find out you were slacking off on your training, I'll kick your ass!"

Toya couldn't help but laugh at his red haired friend's declaration and just waved to his friends who saw him off before turning to follow his captain and lieutenant to what will be the next chapter of his life.

* * *

 **And there you have it, this will be the close of A Shinigami's Journey's academy arc. Because I feel bad for leaving you all hanging by going MIA, I'll let you know right now that the next chapter will be a timeskip to the canon arc of Bleach so I hope you will look forward to what I have in store for you there. One more thing, because I'll be busy with work because of the COVID-19, it will be very difficult for me to find time to write chapters for any of my fanfics. So I hope you will understand and continue to give your support to not only me, but to the other fanfic authors who brighten up your day with our fanfics. Let us all do our best to stay healthy and let COVID-19 know that we won't take any of its crap and that we are strong! Until we meet again my beloved readers!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Welcome, my readers, to the eighth chapter of A Shinigami's Journey! I hope you're all doing well despite this pandemic going around and I pray that it will soon come to an end. Just know that we fanfic authors are doing everything we can to make sure that your days are a little brighter when we update our fanfics for you to read and enjoy. So until this pandemic blows over, stay safe and enjoy what this chapter holds!**

* * *

Chapter Eight: Departure! Risen Rank!

Forty years has past since Toya left the Soul Reaper Academy and became an officer of squad thirteen. He was able to meet with Rukia again and the two quickly caught up and Toya told her everything that happened since she left the academy. Even though he was an unseated officer, Toya kept up with his training and worked hard within the barracks. Because of his friendliness and modesty, Toya would find himself approached by his fellow soul reapers whenever they're bothered or need help with something. As the years went by, Toya went from an unseated officer to a seated officer and quickly went up the ranks until he reached his current position of fourth seat.

We currently find the white haired soul reaper currently standing in the middle one of the squad thirteen training grounds, Raijinmaru held up in front of him with one hand in its released state. Toya's eyes were closed in concentration as Rajinmaru's blade sparked with electricity that traveled from the dragon head along the length of the blade. Taking a deep breath, Toya opened his golden eyes before swinging Rajinmaru, releasing a lightning dragon towards the face of a cliff. Just as the lightning dragon was about to make contact, Toya raised Raijinmaru up into the air, causing the dragon to climb vertically up the cliff face before swinging downwards with a spin. This caused the lightning dragon to descend down towards Toya and circle around him before striking a lone boulder leaving a small crater.

"Alright." Toya swung Rajinmaru to the side as it reverted to its sealed state before sheathing it. "I think that's enough training for today."

"Training hard as usual, I see." Toya turned to face the voice to see Rukia standing a few meters from Toya with her arms crossed. "That spin just now was a bit much, Toya."

"I wanted to see how good my control was." Toya replied, resting a hand on Raijinmaru's handle as he walked over to his petite friend with a smile. "Don't want to accidentally hit an ally after all."

"Please." Rukia rolled her eyes in amusement at her white haired friend's words. "The day that happens is the day the seireitei crumbles to dust."

"True." Toya gave a small laugh before looking down to Rukia in confusion. "By the way, what are you doing here, Rukia?"

"Looking for you, obviously." Rukia replied, reaching into her shihakusho and pulled out a stack of papers before holding them out to Toya. "Captain Ukitake wanted you to deliver these papers to squad ten."

"Why me?" Toya raised a confused eyebrow as he took the papers from Rukia, giving them a quick glance before looking back to his petite friend. "Why not send Kiyone or Sentaro, they're a higher rank than me."

"I asked the same thing." Rukia replied with a shrug before giving the white haired soul reaper a smirk. "He said that you were the most obvious choice as you're familiar with the captain there."

"Only because Momo introduced us." Toya said, placing the papers in the folds of his shihakusho with an amused smile. "Still surprising that kid's a captain."

"I know you treat everyone as equals, Toya." Rukia sighed, shaking her head at her white haired friend's way of speaking. "But can you at least try to show some respect?"

"I make no promises." Toya chuckled, patting Rukia on the shoulder as he walked past her. "See ya later, miss Kuchiki princess."

"Don't call me that!" Toya just laughed loudly at Rukia's outburst as a tick mark formed on her forehead.

' _I swear, her and Renji are just too easy._ ' Toya thought as he left the training grounds and walked through the halls of the squad thirteen barracks, waving in greeting to anyone that walked past.

As he left the barracks and began to navigate himself through the many twists and turns of the seireitei, Toya thought back to his time since joining squad thirteen. It was difficult to settle in at first, but as time went by, Toya eventually got comfortable being a part of squad thirteen with the help of Rukia, Kaien, Jushiro, Kiyone, and Sentaro. A few years later, Renji, Sakuya, Mahiru, Izuru, and Momo all graduated from the academy and the group would get together to hang out except Renji who was avoiding Rukia. The reason why escapes Toya as he tries to understand why Renji would avoid Rukia and came to the conclusion that it's because their petite friend was now part of a noble clan.

' _Renji, you are an idiot._ ' Toya thought as the squad ten barracks entered his field of vision and approached the entrance and addressed the soul reapers positioned there. "Fourth seat Toya of squad thirteen, I am here on orders from captain Ukitake to deliver papers for captain Hitsugaya!"

The two soul reapers nodded as they both reached out to the double doors and opened them. Toya nodded to the soul reapers before walking through the now open entrance and continuing down the halls of the barracks. When he approached the captain's office, the white haired soul reaper noticed that the door was open and peaked inside before an amused smile etched itself on his face. Sitting behind a desk with stacks of papers towering over them was a short boy with short snow white spiked hair and turquoise eyes that were twitching in irritation. He wore a black shihakusho under a sleeveless captain's coat.

He gaze went to the couch in the middle of the office and shook his head in exasperation when he saw a sleeping woman with long wavy blond hair and a beauty mark under the right side of her full lips. She wore a black shihakusho like himself and the boy, however, her robes were slightly loose revealing her busty chest and her lieutenant's badge was worn on its sash, a thin golden necklace tucked between her cleavage, and a long pink scarf over her shoulders.

"I see she's asleep again, huh Toshiro?" Toya asked rhetorically, looking at the boy who looked up from the paper he was currently signing and sighed when he saw Toya.

"How many times do I have to say it?" Toshiro narrowed his eyes slightly at Toya who looked at him in confusion. "It's captain Hitsugaya to you."

Toya continued to look at the young captain in confusion before smiling brightly. "Sure, Toshiro!"

"Now you're doing it on purpose." Toshiro grumbled before returning to signing the papers on his desk. "Why are you here, Toya?"

"Orders from captain Ukitake." Toya replied, walking into the office to stand in front of the desk as he pulled out the papers from the folds of his shihakusho and laid them on the desk. "He wanted me to deliver these to you." He turned his head to the sleeping woman on the couch before looking back to the young captain. "Want me to wake up Rangiku for you?"

"Don't bother, I already tried." Toshiro set his brush down and glared at the woman sleeping carelessly. "You know as well as I do that it's impossible to wake her when she drinks herself to sleep."

"Yeah, that's true." Toya nodded in agreement, remembering all the times he visited the squad ten barracks and the times he tried to wake the sleeping lieutenant. He sighed as he took some papers from the stack on the desk and set them on the table before taking a seat on the couch across from the one Rangiku was sleeping on. "Since I'm here, might as well give you a hand."

"You don't have to do that, Toya." Toshiro said, not taking his eyes off the paper he was currently signing but not stopping the taller white haired soul reaper. "I can take care of it myself."

"Too late, I'm doing it." Toya replied, pulling out a brush and ink bottle from the folds of his shihakusho before he began to sign the papers. "Besides, I have nothing better to do right now."

"You mean other than taking care of your own squad?" Toshiro looked up from his paper to raise an eyebrow at Toya, not believing for a second the fourth seat had nothing to do.

"Kiyone and Sentaro are there." Toya gave a casual shrugged, not in the least bit worried about what his absence may entail. "Sure they fight a lot, but they get the job done."

"I feel sorry for captain Ukitake to have them as his third seats." Toshiro shook his head in pity for the sickly captain before the two returned to their respective stacks of the young captain's paperwork. The office was then silent, the only sound being made were the incoherent muttering of the sleeping lieutenant on the couch as the two white haired soul reapers quickly went through their stacks of paperwork before Toshiro broke the silence. "By the way, there's a chance we'll have two new lieutenants soon."

"Really?" Toya paused in signing the paper in front of him to look up to the white haired captain in curiosity. "Who?"

"One of them is a friend of yours I believe, Renji Abarai." Toshiro replied and Toya's eyes widened in shock at the news. "As for the other, I'm not entirely sure." He looked up to look Toya in the eye who was still in shock. "You must be happy for him, all his hard work is finally being recognized."

"Yeah." Toya nodded his head before looking down at the paper as he processed the new information. A small smile graced his lips as Toya began to sign the papers again. ' _You did it, Renji. Hopefully you'll stop avoiding Rukia now._ '

"You seem more relieved than happy." Toshiro pointed out, taking notice of the relief hidden beneath the happiness in Toya's eyes. Toya flinched at the young captain's words as the said captain set his brush down. "Mind telling me why that is?"

"It's nothing." Toya said, turning his head away from Toshiro, who was trying to get in his thoughts with his stare. "I'm just relieved that Renji's efforts weren't in vain after all these years."

"That's a lie." Toshiro's eyes narrowed as his stare grew in intensity making the fourth seat break into a nervous sweat. "I may not have known you as long as Momo, but I can tell when you're lying."

' _How does he do that?_ ' Toya thought as he looked around the young captain's office to avoid looking in his direction. ' _It's like he can read my mind or something._ '

"I can't read your mind, Toya." Toya jumped and finally faced the white haired captain who had a serious look on his face. "If I could, then I wouldn't have asked you why you looked so relieved."

Toya remained silent for a moment before sighing, setting his brush down and resting his hands on his lap. "Ever since Rukia got adopted by the Kuchikis, Renji has been avoiding her for some reason. I think it's because she's a noble now and he's a Rukon resident."

"Makes sense." Toshiro nodded in agreement, crossing his arms and leaned back in his chair. "He probably thought he lost the right to talk to her after her sudden rise to nobility."

"I think there was more than just that, though." Toya said thoughtfully, looking down to his hands as he thought back to the day Rukia left the academy. He thought back to the man who was the clan head and tightly clenched the fabric of his hakama at how he and Renji just stood there at the pressure of the man's power. After experiencing such immense spiritual pressure, Toya didn't think he had a right to object to the decisions of a noble clan and has regretted it ever since. "I think Renji also believed he wasn't strong enough to be allowed near her."

"And since he's being promoted to lieutenant, he can get closer to her without worrying about status." Toshiro summed up, shaking his head before letting out a sigh. "That friend of yours is an idiot."

"My thoughts exactly." Toya said, nodding in agreement before getting to his feet and walked towards the door of the office. "I better get going, who knows if Kiyone and Sentaro have argued to the point of using their fists."

"Indeed, it amazes me how captain Ukitake puts up with them." Toshiro said, glaring at the couch causing the woman sleeping on it to slightly shiver. "I can barely handle her, so I can't imagine what it's like in squad thirteen." He then turned his attention to Toya and politely nodded to the fourth seat. "Thank you for your assistance, Toya."

"Don't mention it." Toya smiled and gave a small wave to the young captain. "If Rangiku ditches her paperwork again, let me know and I'll help out." With that said, Toya left the captain's office and left the barracks to return to his squad, lost in his own thoughts. "Lieutenant, huh."

Toya's hand found itself resting on the handle of his zanpakuto as he thought back to another person that held the rank. The fourth seat still remembers the untimely end of his squad's lieutenant, Kaien Shiba, like it happened just the day before. How the lieutenant's wife, Miyako Shiba, went along with a few soul reapers to hunt a hollow in the world of the living only to come back as the sole survivor in a coma. It was a great shock to Kaien as well as the rest of the squad when Miyako started to cut down her fellow soul reapers and fled into the woods. The ones who followed her were Kaien, Jushiro, Rukia, and Toya and were horrified by what they found. Instead of finding Miyako, they encountered a hollow that Kaien decided to fight alone despite the protests of Rukia and Toya. Throughout the fight, Toya and Rukia could do nothing more than watch as Kaien's zanpakuto, Nejibana, was destroyed before their very eyes.

' _How could a hollow like that exist?_ ' Toya wondered, bringing his hand up to his face to see it was trembling. ' _Destroying a soul reaper's zanpakuto once a night just by touching them?_ '

Toya looked down at his zanpakuto on his waist and couldn't help but think it was Raijinmaru that got destroyed. His thoughts went back to when he and Rukia were about to assist Kaien only to be halted by Jushiro. Even now, the fourth seat remembers the words the sickly captain had said that day to Rukia and himself.

 ***Flashback***

" _Why are you stopping us, captain?!" Toya demanded, looking at his captain who had a hand on his shoulder and the other hand over Rukia's that was gripping her zanpakuto._

" _Kaien has been disarmed!" Rukia said frantically, shocked that their captain was preventing them from going to Kaien's aid. "We have to help him!"_

" _But if we were to step in now, what would become of Kaien's pride?" Jushiro questioned, causing the two to halt their protests and look at their captain in confusion. "Even if by going to his aid you two were somehow successful in saving his life, the cost of such an act would certainly be the death of his pride forever."_

" _That doesn't make any sense at all, captain!" Rukia shouted, failing to understand the words of her captain. "What good is pride to a man if he's dead?!"_

" _To hell with pride!" Toya gritted his teeth as he reached for his zanpakuto and prepared to jump in to join the fight. He didn't care that he was disobeying his captain and the wishes of his savior, Toya was going to help Kaien no matter what. "Why would that be worth throwing your life away?!"_

 _Jushiro remained silent, his eyes never leaving his lieutenant who continued to fight the hollow that manipulated and devoured his wife. When Toya was about to swat Jushiro's hand off his shoulder, his eyes widened at seeing a pained expression on his captain's face. It was at that moment that Toya realized that he and Rukia weren't the only ones who wanted to help Kaien, but Jushiro as well._

" _Listen now and remember these words you two." Jushiro finally said, getting the attention of both Rukia and Toya."There are two kinds of battles, and those of us who have chosen to be warriors and to fight those battles must always be aware of the difference between the two." Jushiro continued to look on as the hollow used its tentacles to fight Kaien who fought back with a Shakkaho. "There are battles that are fought to protect lives, and there are battles that are fought to defend honor."_

" _Defend honor?" Toya asked softly, looking down in time to see Kaien on top of the hollow and began to rip off its tentacles one by one._

" _Right now, Kaien's fighting with all his heart and soul to defend honor." Jushiro continued, his grip on Toya's shoulder tightened slightly as he thought back to all of his men who were killed. "That of his men who died and his own honor, and above all, his beloved wife's honor."_

 _Toya and Rukia looked towards one another as they thought back to when they witnessed the kind Miyako they knew cut down her fellow soul reapers and covered in their blood. With heavy hearts, the two tightly shut their eyes as they released their grip on their respective zanpakuto._

 ***End of Flashback***

Since that day, Jushiro refuses to take on another lieutenant and Toya along with Kiyone and Sentaro tried their best to fill the void that Kaien left behind and keep squad thirteen running. Because the two always argue when they're in the same room, Toya acts as the mediator and helps divide the work between the three of them. Overtime, the emotional wound Kaien's death left started to heal little by little, and Toya will always be grateful to Kaien for both saving his life in the Rukon District and being a mentor to him and Rukia.

"I'm being transferred?" Rukia's voice brought Toya out of his thoughts to see that he was back in his squad's barracks and stood just outside a room with the sliding door open. "To where?"

The fourth seat peeked inside to see Rukia sitting across two other soul reapers. One was a girl with dark blond hair and gray eyes. She wore a standard Shihakusho with the collar of a white shirt protruding over her top and white gloves. Standing behind her was a man with dark hair and a short goatee. He wears a customized version of the standard shihakusho, wearing a thin white headband and white straps around his shoulders, which are tied in a circle at his back. These two soul reapers were Kiyone Kotestu and Sentaro Kotsubaki, both of whom share the position of third seat of squad thirteen.

"No, that's not it." Kiyone said, waving a dismissive hand at Rukia's question. "We're not going to transfer you out or anything extreme like that. We're just sending you to the world of the living just like the first mission you and I went on together back when you joined. Do you remember that?"

"Uh, actually, I…" Toya took note of Rukia starting to sweat and knew that she was trying and failing to recall the time Kitone had mentioned.

"You see, Kiyone?" Sentaro said, crossing his arms at seeing Rukia sweat. "She doesn't even remember going. The experience was so bad she probably erased it from her memory, right Rukia?"

"Well, uh…" Toya sweat dropped as a tick mark formed on Kiyone's head and knew that a fight was going to start soon.

His assumption was right when Kiyone got to her feet and pointed at Sentaro. "Nobody asked for your opinion, so why don't you just go stick your head in the sand somewhere?!"

"What do you think I am, an ostrich or something, Kiyone?!" Sentaro shouted back, resting his fists on his hips as the two third seats glared and growled at one another.

"Alright, that's enough you two." Toya said, finally making his presence known as he approached Kiyone and Sentaro in an attempt to separate the two.

"Your new post is in a four kilometer radius around Karakura town and it's just for one month." A voice said, ceasing Kiyone and Sentaro's squabble as all eyes turned to the door in time to see Jushiro step into view with a smile on his face. "With your skills it should be easy, I'm sure you can handle it, Rukia."

"Captain Ukitake!" Rukia exclaimed, surprised to see her captain when he was supposed to be resting.

"You shouldn't be out, sir!" Kiyone said worriedly, quickly walking closer to catch the sickly captain in case he collapsed. "You need your rest."

"She's right, captain." Toya said, equally as worried as Kiyone, as he rushed the Jushiro's side. "Please, return to your room and lie down."

"Well, that's kind of you two, but I'm feeling good today." Jushiro said reassuringly before looking at Rukia. "Even though this is just a month long assignment, Rukia, I thought you might be a little anxious about being sent out on your own for the first time." He closed his eyes and gave Rukia an encouraging smile. "So I came to see you off."

Rukia gave her captain a grateful smile before bowing to him. "Thank you, captain!"

"Please, it's nothing." Jushiro said with a small laugh before stepping inside the room. "Have you told Byakuya yet?"

"Uh, of course. I mean..." Toya watched as his petite friend looked up to Jushiro, looking to the side and back before letting out a sigh. "Not yet, captain Kuchiki hates it when I bother him with every little detail." Toya frowned and narrowed his eyes slightly when he heard Rukia's words. "So, I was going to leave without saying anything to him about it."

"I see." Jushiro frowned for a moment before giving Rukia a gentle smile and taking a few steps towards her to kneel down to be at eye level. "It's alright, if that's what you really wanna do, then I support your decision. I'll tell Byakuya for you, so go with a clear conscience."

Kiyone, Sentaro, and Toya watched on as Rukia once again bowed to their captain in gratitude. "Thank you, captain!"

"Also, I was hoping to have a word with you, Toya." Jushiro added, turning his head to look at the fourth seat who blinked a couple times in confusion. "You're not in trouble or anything, I just would like to discuss something with you."

"Of course, captain." Toya nodded as Jushiro got to his feet and left the room before giving a small wave to Rukia. "Good luck, Rukia, not that you'll need it."

With that said, Toya quickly left the room to follow his captain down the halls of the squad thirteen barracks and towards a construct built over a pond. Toya knew immediately that the construct was the ugendo that was set aside for Jushiro to rest due to his poor health. When they reached the door, Jushiro slid it open and stepped inside followed by Toya before they seated themselves across from each other. A few moments later, a female soul reaper walked in with a tray with a teapot and cups on it and poured each of them some tea. The two white haired soul reapers thanked her before she left.

"Would you care for some, Toya?" Jushiro offered, gesturing to a plate of dango beside him.

"No, but thank you for the offer, though." Toya politely declined as he picked up his cup, blew on it a few times to cool it down, and took a sip before addressing his captain. "Captain, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Before we get to that, I want to ask you something." Jushiro said, getting an inquiring look from Toya. The sickly captain remained silent for a moment, contemplating his words carefully. "Toya, if you don't mind me asking, why did you decide to become a soul reaper?"

"Huh?" Toya blinked in bewilderment at the sudden question, setting his cup down to give his captain his full attention. "Why do you ask, captain?"

"Ever since you joined squad thirteen, I noticed how you took your work as a soul reaper very seriously." Jushiro explained, taking a sip from his own cup as he recalled everything Toya did in his squad since he joined. "I'm simply curious as to what occurred that led you down this path."

"I see." Toya looked down to his zanpakuto, which he laid beside him when he sat down, and he thought back to the day he decided to become a soul reaper. He had his doubts at first, but an encounter with a hollow and being saved by soul reapers, namely one, is what helped him make his decision. "I guess you could say it was Kaien."

"Kaien?" Jushiro asked, eyes slightly widening in surprise at the fourth seat's words.

"Yeah." Toya nodded, turning his head to look behind him to his right foot where the number twenty tattoo hidden under his sock laid. "I have amnesia, so my main reason used to be to have access to the archives to hopefully learn about my past." He turned his gaze back to captain Ukitake, who had a confused look on his face, before removing his right sock to reveal the number twenty tattoo on his foot. "This tattoo is the only clue I have."

"It looks to me like some kind of brand." Jushiro muttered thoughtfully, carefully inspecting the tattoo on his fourth seat's midfoot. Filing the tattoo away for later contemplation, the squad thirteen captain turned his attention back to Toya. "You said "used to be", as in it's no longer your reason?"

"It's still one of my reasons, just not the main one anymore." Toya replied as he put his sock back on and returned to the proper seiza position. "After Kaien saved me from a hollow and spending time in the academy, my reason for being a soul reaper slowly changed from learning about my past to being a protector."

Jushiro could tell just by listening that his fourth seat was being honest and meant every word that left his mouth. Over the years since he invited Toya to join his squad, the sickly captain watched as the boy adjusted to being in a squad. He held a great deal of respect for Kaien and looked up to the lieutenant as the two developed a teacher-student relationship like Rukia did before. It was Kaien who taught Toya how to better control his lightning dragons and sparred with each other every so often.

"I see." Jushiro had a small smile on his face as he recalled how proud his lieutenant sounded when he talked about Rukia and Toya. "Thank you for answering my question, Toya." He took another sip of his tea before setting his cup down and folded his hands on his lap. "Now, onto why I wanted to talk to you." Toya straightened his posture and gave his captain his full attention. "As I'm sure captain Hitsugaya already told you, there might be two new lieutenants very soon."

"Yes, he did." Toya nodded, looking in thought as he recalled his conversation with the young captain. "He knows one of them was going to be Renji." He looked back to Jushiro and gave a small shrug. "But he didn't know who the other was."

Jushiro reached for a stick of dango and took a bite of one of the three balls before washing it down with a sip of his tea. "It's actually someone from this squad."

Toya's eyes widened in disbelief as he processed the words that left his captain's mouth. "Captain, does that mean what I think it means?!"

"Yes." Jushiro nodded in confirmation, looking past Toya to the pond outside the ugendo and had a sad look on his face. "Ever since that incident, I held myself responsible for Kaien's death and refused to take on another lieutenant." He then turned his attention back to Toya as his smile returned. "But it wasn't until recently that I realized that Kaien wouldn't want me to live in the past."

"I agree, captain." Toya nodded as he recalled the years he spent with the deceased lieutenant with a sad smile on his face. "Kaien would probably say it wasn't your fault he died and wouldn't want you to live in the past, he would want you to move forward and be the best captain he knows you can be."

"Indeed, that does sound like something Kaien would say." Jushiro and Toya gave a small amused laugh as they pictured an annoyed Kaien saying Toya's exact words. Once they ceased their laughter, Jushiro coughed into a fist to clear his throat. "That's why I decided it's time I took on a lieutenant again."

"Who is it, captain?" Toya asked curiously, looking up in thought as he quickly thought up a list of possible candidates. "Is it Sentaro, or maybe Kiyone? Maybe Rukia, she's smart enough to handle the position."

Jushiro chuckled in amusement as the fourth seat muttered every name he could think of that might be their squad's new lieutenant. When Toya ran out of people to list off and began to run his fingers through his hair, Jushiro cleared his throat again to gain the fourth seat's attention. "I believe you're forgetting someone, Toya."

"I'm forgetting someone?" Toya asked, blinking in confusion as he crossed his arms in thought. "I'm pretty sure I listed everyone in squad thirteen, the only person I could possibly forget is…" Toya trailed off as his eyes slowly began to widen when he realized where his sentence was leading him. "Me?"

"That's right." Jushiro nodded, sipping the last of his tea before looking to the shell shocked fourth seat. "Over the years, you have gained the respect of your fellow soul reapers because of your skills and way of interacting with them." He reached into the folds of his shihakusho and pulled out a folded piece of paper before unfolding it to read its contents. "When I questioned my men about their thoughts of you, they only had positive things to say and wouldn't mind having you as a lieutenant."

"Wai- bu- I don't-." Toya stammered out, trying and failing to both process everything he was hearing and getting over his shock. "Captain, I-I don't think I'm ready for such a position!"

"On the contrary, you're quite ready." Jushiro said, folding the paper and placing it into his shihakusho before pulling out a folded letter that had 'Letter of Appointment' written on it. He set the letter down between himself and Toya before looking at the fourth seat. "Kaien spoke highly of you when he was training you and Rukia. So highly in fact he told me that he wanted you to take over the position of lieutenant should anything happen to him."

"Kaien did?" Toya asked softly, looking down to the letter in front of him as he thought over what he should do.

"He did." Jushiro nodded, getting the attention of his fourth seat as he looked down at the letter sadly as he thought about his former lieutenant. "He would tell me how he thought that either you or Rukia had what it takes to take his place with more training." The sickly captain looked back at Toya and gave a small smile. "It wasn't easy, but I was finally able to gather enough courage to take on another lieutenant and I have chosen you, Toya."

"Captain, I'm honored, but…" Toya said hesitantly, switching between looking at his captain and the letter, unsure if he should accept or not.

The fourth seat thought back to when Kaien had saved him from the hollow and the time he would spar with the lieutenant. He was grateful to the lieutenant for saving his life as well as directing him on the path of the soul reaper and wished to repay him one day. That gratitude turned into adoration the more time he spent with the lieutenant and aimed to surpass the man he saw as his mentor. However, now that Kaien has passed, Toya is unable to do either and was filled with regrets. Regret for not repaying Kaien for saving his life, regret for not coming to his aid despite knowing the kind of battle he was fighting, and many other regrets the fourth seat couldn't place.

Toya placed a hand over his chest where his heart laid and took a deep breath to calm his nerves. He could still remember how the lieutenant believed Jushiro's philosophy on fighting, which consists of two types of combat: the fight to protect life, and the fight to protect honor and took it a step further. He believed that every time someone connects with another, a little bit of their "heart" is born between them. He didn't think of "heart" as something inside an individual, but rather what is born whenever one thinks of or remembers someone else. He believed that one's "heart" exists in others, and that it remains with their comrades even after death. Having held such views, Kaien believed that people should never die alone, which Toya agreed wholeheartedly.

Slightly hesitating, Toya slowly reached for the letter to pick it up and stared at it for a moment before looking towards Jushiro with a small smile on his face. "I humbly accept, captain, I'll do my best to meet and exceed Kaien's expectations."

"I know you will." Jushiro said with a soft smile and gave Toya a small bow which the former fourth seat returned. As they straightened themselves, Jushiro and Toya finished the last of their tea before setting their cups to the side. "The ceremony to officially appoint you and Renji as lieutenants will be one month from now, so why don't you take some time off to mentally prepare yourself?"

"Is that really okay?" Toya asked as he looked at the letter for a moment before his eyes went back to his captain. "What about the squad?"

"Kiyone and Sentaro have it covered." Jushiro said reassuringly and Toya raised an unsure eyebrow. "Even though they fight a lot, you should know that they'll get the job done."

"That's true." Toya gave a small chuckle as he placed the letter in the folds of his shihakusho before getting to his feet. "Especially when I divide the work between them."

"Exactly." Jushiro nodded, getting his feet as well before the two left the ugendo and walked through the barracks hallways. "That's also why I chose you as my lieutenant, you know how to handle arguments between those two when I'm not around."

"All the more reason I shouldn't take time off." Toya said, looking to the side in time to see Kiyone and Sentaro butting heads and glaring at each other. "I don't think the squad will last long if I do."

"I'm sure everything will be fine." Jushiro placed a hand on Toya's shoulder, causing the soon-to-be lieutenant to look his way and gave him a reassuring smile. "I've been feeling alright recently, so I insist you take time off while I do my duty as captain, Toya."

Toya seemed hesitant, worried about his captain's health and leaving Kiyone and Sentaro without a mediator. After a moment of consideration, Toya nodded his head in acceptance. "Well, if you insist, just please don't push yourself, captain."

Jushiro nodded to Toya before bowing to his captain and made his way out of the barracks for the second time that day. Not knowing what to do, Toya just aimlessly walked around the seireitei as he rested a hand on his zanpakuto's handle and lightly tapped its pommel. His eyes would shift from one building he passed to another as he thought of the facts he knew of said buildings. His feet eventually brought him to the squad eleven barracks where he knew his friend, Renji, was the sixth seat of. At the thought of his red haired friend, Toya's reached into his shihakusho where his letter of appointment was.

' _Might as well go in and say hi._ ' Toya thought as he entered the barracks and walked down the halls, sneaking past any squad members that were nearby.

After many twists and turns, Toya finally found Renji sitting across from Momo and Izuru. Throughout the years, Momo and Izuru's appearances have changed since the academy. Momo had her hair in a bun held by a tied cloth and is the lieutenant of squad five while Izuru grew his bangs to cover his left eye and is the lieutenant of squad three. Taking notice of the letter of appointment laying on the floor between them, Toya stayed out of sight but close enough to hear their conversation.

"I hereby promote squad eleven sixth seat Renji to the position of lieutenant squad six." Momo announced, filling the room with silence for a moment before smiling at Renji. "Congratulations, Lieutenant Abarai!"

"Yes, thanks! Uh, I mean..." Toya had to place a hand over his mouth to stifle a chuckle at seeing his red haired friend realizing he wasn't speaking formally. Renji placed his fists to the floor and bowed to Momo, slightly surprising her. "It is an honor, I humbly accept, lieutenant."

"You don't have to be so formal with me, Renji." Momo said and Toya took this chance to quietly get behind her and Izuru.

"Especially since you're the same rank now." Toya said, getting a startled squeak from Momo while Izuru and Renji looked up at him in surprise. Toya just grinned and gave his friends a two-fingered salute. "What's up?"

"Toya!" Momo exclaimed in exasperation, a hand over her heart as she gave Toya a half-hearted glare. "Don't do that, you almost gave me a heart attack!"

"Haha, sorry, Momo." Toya apologized, rubbing the back of his head before looking towards Ranji. "Anyway, congrats, Renji. All your hard work finally paid off."

"Thanks, Toya." Renji gave his white haired friend a grin. "Looks like I'm one step ahead of you this time."

"I don't think so." Toya returned the grin, reaching into his shihakusho and pulled out his letter of appointment to the shock of everyone present. "You're not the only one becoming a lieutenant."

"Seriously?!" Renji exclaimed, eyes wide in shock as Toya just nodded in response. "Which squad?!"

"Thirteen, captain Ukitake finally decided to take on a lieutenant again." Toya replied, placing his letter back in his shihakusho. "Let's both do our best as lieutenants, Renji."

"Yeah." Renji nodded as he looked down to his own letter. "One step closer."

"Well, are you happy, Renji?" A voice suddenly asked, causing everyone present to face the voice which belonged to a bald man sitting against the sliding door with his arms crossed, eyes closed, and his zanpakuto leaning against his shoulder. Toya immediately recognized the man to be Ikkaku Madarame, the third seat of squad eleven. "Like you said, you've gotten yourself one step closer to captain Kuchiki, and his sister."

"And just what does that mean?" Renji inquired as he looked back to Ikkaku.

"Isn't it about time you talked to her?" Ikkaku asked back, leaning forward slightly on his zanpakuto. "When are you going to get over your insecurity with Rukia?" He opened his eyes and turned his head to face Renji. "Even though she's some kind of royalty now, you can approach her since you've become a lieutenant. You haven't spoken for forty years, don't you think it's about time you patched things up with her? Remember the way you two used to run around together in the Rukon District?"

"You probably won't go, but I feel I should tell you anyway." Toya said, getting the attention of Renji, Momo, Izuru, and Ikkaku. "Rukia has been assigned a month-long station in the world of the living and she's on her way to the Senkaimon right now."

"Oh no!" Momo gasped as she got to her feet. "You've got to hurry up, Renji!"

"No." Renji said, surprising the squad five lieutenant. "I won't be officially promoted until the ceremony a month now anyway, so I'll wait until after that. I'll surprise her with the news that I'm a lieutenant after she comes back."

"Renji, you idiot." Toya muttered under his breath before walking away giving a backhanded wave. "Do what you want, I'm going to the Rukon District for a little while."

With that said, Toya took one more step before vanishing in the blink of an eye. Flash Step, one of the first Hoho techniques Toya had learned in the academy. Capable of moving faster than the eye can follow, he has trained hard to the point he was close to mastering one of the more advanced Hoho techniques. In no time at all, Toya had arrived at the Hakuto gate to see an extremely large, muscular man towering over him with his hair tied into a pony-tail, which extends down his waist. He has long sideburns, which continue down onto his neck and long enough to be tied up in small pony-tail like tufts. He wears armor on his left shoulder and upper arm, plus a red hat with tassels. The left side of his chest is left exposed by his uniform.

"Hey, Jidanbo." Toya greeted him as he approached the colossal man.

"Hello, Toya, it's been a while." Jidanbo greeted back as he looked down towards Toya. "Going on another stroll in the Rukon District?"

"Yeah." Toya nodded in confirmation as he looked up to the gatekeeper. "Can you open the gate, I won't be long."

"Of course." Jidanbo turned his back to Toya and reached under the Hakuto gate before lifting it up with great effort. Once the gate was fully open, Toya ran to the other side followed by Jidanbo as he let go of the gate and let it slam back into place. "When you're ready to return, I'll be here to open the gate again."

"Thanks, Jidanbo." Toya waved to the gatekeeper before turning his back to him and vanished in another Flash Step. Toya reappeared at the edge of a deep forest and walked his way through the trees as he let his mind wander to earlier that day. "I can't believe it, me, a lieutenant?" He reached into his shihakusho to feel the letter was still there before pinching his cheek to feel a stinging pain. "Nope, not dreaming, so it really happened." Toya looked up to the sky that peeked through the gaps of the tree leaves. "Kaien, I don't know if I'm ready for this, but I'll do you proud."

Because he was looking up, Toya didn't notice the uprooted tree root before his foot got caught in it causing him to give a startled yelp as he tried to regain his balance. The result was him falling to the ground face first and letting out a painful groan before pushing himself up with his arms. As Toya got back on his feet and dusting off the dirt and leaves clinging to his shihakusho, he took notice of a small cave that had wooden doors bound together by a rusted chain. Slightly curious, Toya cautiously approached the cave and reached out to the chain before jumping back slightly when it suddenly broke and fell to the ground. The wooden door slowly began to open with a low creak and Toya debated on whether to step inside or not.

Taking a deep breath, Toya once again cautiously approached the entrance before walking inside. He could see nothing for the corridor was pitch black but continued on inside, his eyes occasionally looking to the left and right for any signs of danger. Toya placed his hand against the cave wall as he walked down the corridor as his eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness. After what felt like hours, Toya felt his hand touching something metal and looked to see bars of a cell. He looked down the corridor to see even more cells, some were open while some were not.

"What is this place?" Toya asked himself as he walked past the cells and took notice that some of the bars had what he assumed was dry blood on them. "Some kind of prison?"

He stopped in front of a particular cell that looked like it held a savage beast. The walls and floors were covered in claw marks and the center of the cell had a small crater. The moment he saw the claw marks, Toya slightly winced as his hand went up to clutch his head as it started to throb painfully. Toya staggered back a few steps, his back hitting the cell bars behind him before walking down the corridor as fast as he could. He took a few deep breaths as the throbbing slowly ebbed away and lowered his hand.

"What was that?" Toya looked behind him to where the cells were as a chill went down his spine. "Why did my head start to hurt?"

He shook his head before continuing down the corridor, trying his best to ignore the cells he passed and the dull throbbing of his head. Toya soon reached the end of the corridor to find a single door and opened it. On the other side of the door was a room with a giant test broken test tube in the center with cables attached to the bottom connecting to a single computer. Toya looked around curiously as he approached the computer, accidentally turning it on when he placed his hand on it.

"It still works?" Toya began to rapidly type on the computer, letting his eyes glide through what appeared on the screen. "Let's see what this place was used for." As he read through the information provided, or lack thereof, Toya can only assume that he was in some sort of lab or prison. "There's almost no information about this place, not what it's for, no list of those involved, nothing."

Toya's thoughts immediately went back to the cells he passed on the way and didn't like where his thoughts were leading him. Just as he was about to give up and turn the device off, Toya found what looked like a file that was labeled "Classified" and opened it. Inside the file were pictures of people ranging from children to young adults but no information about any of them.

"It's almost as if all their information was erased." Toya muttered as he saw that all of the files of every person was blank. "Just what is this place and what were they trying to accomplish?" As he opened the second to last file, Toya's eyes widened in shock as a gasp left his mouth at what he was seeing. "No, way, this can't be right."

The file that Toya opened had a picture of himself and he couldn't tear his eyes away from it. A stinging pain in his head had Toya tightly shut his eyes and clenching his teeth. One hand clutched his head while the other slammed onto the computer, shutting it off in the process, as Toya began to hear echoed screams in his head. He backed away from the computer before running out of the room and down the corridor as the echoing screams got louder with each cell he passed.

"Stop screaming, stop it!" Toya yelled, clutching his head with both hands as the pain and screams intensified. "Stop, stop, stop!" Toya was soon outside of the cave and fell to his knees as image after image flashed through his eyes but was in too much pain to process any of them. Tears built up in the corner of his eyes as he muttered one last thing before unconsciousness overtook him. "Please, no more, make it stop."

As Toya fell to the side and laid motionlessly on the ground, a lone figure stood on a tree branch, hidden from view by its many leaves. The figure looked down towards Toya as a wheat chain with a claw-shaped dart suddenly wrapped itself around his midsection. With a tug, Toya was off the ground before being tossed over the treetops and out of eyesight. The figure then turned their attention to the cave entrance before the dart embedded itself over it with enough force to cause it to crumble, completely sealing it off from anyone else who wished to enter. With that done, the figure was suddenly gone, leaving no evidence of them ever being there except the now sealed cave entrance.

* * *

 **Now onto replying to your reviews, my readers.**

 **ShadowKnight1121: Yup, I'm still alive and kicking. I'm glad to hear that you were happy to see an update and I hope you enjoyed this one.**

 **Guest: Thank you for your kind words. Hmm, interesting choices, I'll think them over as I make future chapters.**

 **With that said and done, till we meet again!**


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